Comments collected by Sylvain Lartaud

Interview with Christian Dubarry, head of the Europe Department at Bpifrance, which has become a central operator of European financing in France and Europe.

What European aid can businesses benefit from?

“There are 4 major European business financing programs: InvestEU, FEDER, NextGenerationEU and Horizon Europe. These funds support companies and their investment projects in terms of innovation, sustainability and competitiveness in particular. The FEDER (European regional development fund) are products implemented for more than 20 years with the Regions and which will make it possible to finance the investment needs of companies, rather SMEs, which have convincing growth prospects. Since 2021, €350 million has been mobilized with the FEDER in AURA for the benefit of 2,412 companies. NextGenerationEU, for its part, was the subject of a loan from Europe on the financial markets, it is a European recovery and resilience plan in response to the crisis linked to Covid-19. Finally, the Horizon Europe program (including the EIC Accelerator) is directly managed by the European Commission through the European Innovation Council and is primarily aimed at deeptech start-ups. In total, in 2023, Bpifrance financed 1,500 companies in the AURA region. In France, €3.5 billion in financing was granted to more than 4,500 companies. »

What message should we send to business leaders?

“European funding meets the needs of businesses and given the extent of European resources that are managed in the regions, there are many products and some are very easy to access. Do not hesitate to contact us in the region to discuss the needs of the company, its prospects and development projects. At that point, our job is to identify the most suitable support and device, the one that will best help them move forward. In the case of direct funding (the 4th program), you have to go and get it in Brussels. It is important to have an analysis upstream in terms of benefit because the cost is not negligible: there are complicated files to put together, it takes time and therefore the company's investment, it is sometimes necessary to call to an external medium. But behind it, there is often very incentive funding: European grants finance 70% of the projects, it can even be 100% in certain cases. There is also the benefit of having a project recognized at European level. They provide access to visibility and to partners who can also be investors. »

How are these European resources evolving?

“There was a peak with the European recovery plan but we are not sure that it will last. European resources are quite predictable: they are implemented within the framework of multi-annual financial plans which last 7 years - we are currently on 2021-2027 - which will be overhauled after the European elections next June. Our goal is for it to be remodeled in a useful and effective way for the economic development of businesses. »

Christian Dubarry, head of the Europe Division at Bpifrance.