The European Investment Bank should proceed on its current path of assisting schemes aimed at SMEs, Finance Minister Edward Scicluna said during the Ecofin Council meeting in Brussels.

The EU, he said, needed to support initiatives in favour of SMEs and must ensure that bureaucratic impediments which could place burdens on SMEs were avoided.

He noted that Malta had experienced the success of SME-friendly schemes through the Jeremie initiative, through which guarantees were provided to local banks to extend loans to SMEs.

Prof. Scicluna emphasised the need for the EU to continue to place focus on growth and jobs. He pointed out that while there were large European and international companies which were not short of finance, this was not the case for SMEs.

Following the Ecofin meeting, Prof. Scicluna held a bilateral meeting with European Commission vice-president Olli Rehn, during which he reported on Malta’s economic and financial progress and the reforms being undertaken in the energy, employment, education and judicial fields as outlined in the Budget.