Translation of "bonification " (French → English) :

B. whereas on 19 April 1994 a cooperation agreement was drawn up between the Commission and the EIB which sets out a number of provisions including those regarding the definition of the subsidised SME loans, agents and intermediaries, conditions for granting interest subsidies, cost and expenses incurred, as well as records and reporting; notes that provisions should have been clearer, especially those regarding management and control issues,

1. In its conclusions on the Court of Auditors Special Report n° 3/99 on the management and control of interest-rate subsidies, the Council welcomed the commitment of the Commission to present "a comprehensive study on the general usefulness of interest-rate subsidies in terms of cost and economic efficiency, in the light of all relevant factors".

17. Stresses that it is important that the benefit of the interest rate subsidy should go to the young farmers involved rather than the bank through which it is paid; calls for clear guidelines on interest rate subsidies to be established in this respect, which require the banks to demonstrate transparently that the interest rate subsidy is not contributing to their calculation of the interest rate applied;

The Round Table's proposals may be summarised as follows: With regard to bank loans: - the Round Table recommends that communication between banks and SMEs should be improved, bank staff should receive better training and the range of financial products should be better geared to the requirements of SMEs; - in order to increase access to loans, it also advocates wider use of the facilities offered by the guarantee funds and mutual guarantee schemes; - as regards the European Investment Fund (EIF) and the interest rebates on European Investment Bank (EIB) loans, the Round Table's main recommendations are: * to earmark, in the short term ...[+++], a sizeable proportion of EIF operations for SME funding; * to enable the EIF to operate flexibly to take account of the actual situation in each Member State, e.g. by assisting national guarantee schemes, including mutual guarantee schemes; * to make sure that it is the end beneficiaries, i.e. SMEs, that derive the full benefit from the advantages offered by the EIF and the system of interest rebates on EIB loans and that the intermediaries are specialised in funding SMEs; * to make sure that the job-creation condition to which the granting of interest rebates is subject is applied as flexibly as possible.

It will comprise in particular: a) an increased effort to provide information about ECSC conversion loans and the possibilities for assistance, particularly in those regions which have not made sufficient use of these loans until now; ./. - 2 - b) greater responsibility will be given to the regional partnership (Monitoring Committees of the Community Support Frameworks) to monitor and coordinate these loans with the regional development priorities in the CSF; c) ECSC financial support in the form of interest-rate subsidies on these loans will be programmed until end of 1993; this programming consists of a regional indicative allocation in the operational budget of the ECSC of the appropriations envisaged in this ...[+++]connection; d) greater geographical concentration of aid in the form of interest- rate subsidies will be sought during 1992, in cooperation with the Member States, giving priority to the regions eligible for ERDF assistance, i.e. those having the greatest difficulties with the conversion of ECSC industries; e) the conversion loans will also be concentrated on the sectors given priority in the Community support frameworks; f) in exceptional cases justified by the socio-economic situation of a region, an additional interest-rate subsidy can be granted by the ECSC or the European Regional Development Fund.

- Aid to shipbuilding - State Aid no N561/93 - Denmark The interest aid scheme is replacing the Danish index-linked financing scheme previously approved by the Commission. As in this case, the object is to reduce the financing costs of shipowners who have vessels built at Danish shipyards.