Terms and conditions for the EIF guarantee
For references to attachments in our offer letters, see the bottom of this page.
Terms and conditions for EIF financial guarantees
Your company must confirm that none of the 'Exclusion Situations' defined in the document 'Exclusion Situations' apply (see the attachment on this webpage).
You must not use the loan to refinance or repay existing debt without our written consent.
Your company must use the loan solely for the specific purpose for which we granted it.
You must not use a grant from an EU programme to repay the loan. You must not use the loan to pre-finance a grant from an EU programme. The combined support from the InvestEU Fund and other EU programmes must not exceed the total costs of the project financed by the loan.
The total estimated nominal interest rate over the term of the loan, including any interest-free periods, will under no circumstances be lower than the base rate used to calculate the reference rate, as set by the EFTA Surveillance Authority (ESA) when you accept the loan offer. The base rate used to calculate the reference rate is published on ESA's website.
As long as funds borrowed with an EIF guarantee remain at your company's disposal, you must hold them in an account with a credit institution in Norway, Iceland or an EU country.
Your company must comply at all times with applicable export control regulations, sanctions and restrictive measures. If your company breaches these regulations, we may terminate the agreement in accordance with our standard terms and conditions. The same applies if our relationship with your company would constitute a breach of these regulations.
Your company must comply with all relevant national and EU/EEA legislation that applies to us, the European Commission or the EIF as guarantor. In particular, your company must comply with relevant national and EU/EEA legislation relating to fraud, corruption, coercion, collusion, money laundering, terrorist financing or tax crime (including tax fraud and tax evasion), as defined in the Anti-Money Laundering Directives, as well as fraud and other illegal activities affecting the financial interests of the EIB, the EIF and the EU.
Your company must not be registered or have established operations in a 'Non-compliant jurisdiction'. This means any geographical area listed in the 'Excluded jurisdictions' appendix further down this page.
Companies that are registered or have established operations in a 'Non-compliant jurisdiction' may still qualify for a loan under the scheme in exceptional cases if we have an international office in the relevant jurisdiction.
Your company must not use tax arrangements in 'Harmful Preferential Tax Regimes (HPTR)'. These are jurisdictions listed as HPTR in Annex 1 or 2 of the 'Council conclusions on the revised EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes'. If your company is registered or established in one of these jurisdictions, you must declare to us that it does not use HPTR. You make this declaration by signing the offer letter.
View the updated list of jurisdictions listed as HPTR here.
The loan must not finance arrangements whose main purpose is tax evasion.
The borrower must not have significant business activities of the kind described in the document 'Restricted sectors' (see the attachment on this website).
You must not use the loan for activities described in section 7, 'Energy production based on fossil fuels and related activities', or section 8, 'Energy-intensive and/or high-CO2-emission industries and sectors'.
You must not use the loan for activities described in the 'InvestEU Excluded Activities' document (see the attachment on this webpage).
For loans exceeding EUR 500,000, or the equivalent amount in NOK, the EIF publishes information about the loan on its website, including your company's name and address and the type of financing.
The EIF guarantee means that we must process certain personal data about individuals associated with your company (see the relevant section in the standard terms and conditions). We may also need to disclose personal data to the EIF and EIB, which will process it as described in the privacy statements available here:
If you are an individual borrower, your name, type of financing and region may be published on the websites of the EIF, the EIB and the European Commission.
We, the EIF and the Relevant Parties, as defined below, are entitled to verify compliance with the terms of the guarantee. Accordingly, at the request of any of these institutions, the company must provide and submit relevant information about itself and the loan covered by the guarantee. The company must retain this information for five years after the loan has ended and, in all cases, until any ongoing audit, verification, appeal, legal proceedings, pursuit of claims or investigation by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) has concluded.
Following on from the paragraph above, the company must approve and confirm the following statement from the EIF:
The company acknowledges and agrees that the European Court of Auditors ('ECA'), or any other competent national auditor, the European Anti-Fraud Office ('OLAF'), the European Investment Fund ('EIF'), the European Investment Bank ('EIB'), the agents of the EIF or EIB or any other person appointed by the EIF or EIB, the European Commission (the 'Commission'), the agents of the Commission (including OLAF), the European Public Prosecutor’s Office ('EPPO'), any other EU institution or EU body entitled to verify the use of the guarantee in connection with the InvestEU guarantee instrument, and any other duly authorised body or institution entitled under applicable law to carry out audit or control activities (collectively, the 'Relevant Parties') shall be entitled to carry out audits and controls and to request information in connection with this agreement and its implementation.
The company shall
- permit each of the Relevant Parties to remotely monitor, conduct monitoring visits and inspect its business operations, accounts and records;
- allow Relevant Parties to visit the sites, installations and facilities financed by the financial guarantee;
- allow Relevant Parties to interview the borrower's representatives and not obstruct contact with representatives or other persons involved in or affected by the InvestEU guarantee instrument;
- allow Relevant Parties to carry out audits, checks and on-site inspections and, for this purpose, grant access to its premises during normal working hours;
- allow the Relevant Parties to review the company's accounts and records in connection with this agreement and make copies of them and related documents, to the extent permitted by applicable law and as may be necessary.
Your company must cooperate and make every effort to respond to requests for information relating to evaluations of the financial guarantee scheme by the EIF. These evaluations may be carried out by us, the EIF or others commissioned to evaluate the scheme.