FantasticSearch

1. The Commission shall establish the InvestEU Advisory Hub. The InvestEU Advisory Hub shall provide advisory support for the identification, preparation, development, structuring, procuring and implementation of investment projects, and for enhancing the capacity of project promoters and financial intermediaries to implement financing and investment operations. Such support may cover any stage of the life cycle of a project or financing of a supported entity.

The Commission shall conclude advisory agreements with the EIB Group and other potential advisory partners and task them with the provision of advisory support as referred to in the first subparagraph of this paragraph and of the services referred to in paragraph 2. The Commission may also implement advisory initiatives, including through contracting external service providers. The Commission shall establish a central entry point to the InvestEU Advisory Hub and shall allocate requests for advisory support to be dealt under the appropriate advisory initiative. The Commission, the EIB Group and the other advisory partners shall cooperate closely with a view to ensuring efficiency, synergies and effective geographic coverage of support across the Union, while taking due account of existing structures and work. Advisory initiatives shall be available as a component under each policy window referred to in Article 8(1), covering sectors under that window. In addition, advisory initiatives shall be available under a cross-sectoral component.

2. The InvestEU Advisory Hub shall in particular:

(a) provide a central point of entry, managed and hosted by the Commission, for project development assistance under the InvestEU Advisory Hub for public authorities and for project promoters;

(b) disseminate to public authorities and project promoters all available additional information regarding the investment guidelines, including information on their application or on the interpretation provided by the Commission;

(c) where appropriate, assist project promoters in developing their projects so that they fulfil the objectives set out in Articles 3 and 8 and the eligibility criteria set out in Article 14, and facilitate the development of among others important projects of common European interest and aggregators for small-sized projects, including through investment platforms as referred to in point (f) of this paragraph, provided that such assistance does not prejudge the conclusions of the Investment Committee with respect to the coverage of the EU guarantee with respect to such projects;

(d) support actions and leverage local knowledge to facilitate the use of InvestEU Fund support across the Union and contribute actively where possible to the objective of the sectorial and geographical diversification of the InvestEU Fund by supporting implementing partners in originating and developing potential financing and investment operations;

(e) facilitate the establishment of collaborative platforms for peer-to-peer exchanges and the sharing of data, knowhow and best practices to support project pipeline and sector development;

(f) provide proactive advisory support with respect to the establishment of investment platforms, including cross-border and macro-regional investment platforms and investment platforms that bundle small and medium-sized projects in one or more Member States by theme or by region;

(g) support the use of blending with grants or financial instruments funded by the Union budget or by other sources in order to strengthen synergies and complementarities between Union instruments and to maximise the leverage and impact of the InvestEU Programme;

(h) support capacity building actions to develop organisational capacities, skills and processes and to accelerate the investment readiness of organisations in order for public authorities and project promoters to build investment project pipelines, develop financing mechanisms and investment platforms and to manage projects and for financial intermediaries to implement financing and investment operations for the benefit of entities that face difficulties in obtaining access to finance, including through support for developing risk assessment capacity or sector specific knowledge;

(i) providing advisory support for start-ups, especially when they seek to protect their research and innovation investments by obtaining intellectual property titles, such as patents.

3. The InvestEU Advisory Hub shall be available to public and private project promoters, including SMEs and start-ups, to public authorities, to national promotional banks and institutions, and to financial and non-financial intermediaries.

4. The Commission shall conclude an advisory agreement with each advisory partner on the implementation of one or more advisory initiatives. The InvestEU Advisory Hub may charge fees for the services referred to in paragraph 2 to cover part of the costs for providing those services, except for services provided to public project promoters or non-profit institutions, which shall be free of charge where justified. Fees charged to SMEs for those services referred to in paragraph 2 shall be capped at one third of the cost of providing those services.

5. In order to carry out the activities referred to in paragraph 1 and to facilitate the provision of advisory support, the InvestEU Advisory Hub shall build upon the expertise of the Commission, the EIB Group and the other advisory partners.

6. Each advisory initiative shall incorporate a cost-sharing mechanism between the Commission and the advisory partner, except where the Commission agrees to cover all costs of the advisory initiative in a duly justified case where the specificities of the advisory initiative so require and the coherent and equitable treatment of advisory partners concerned is ensured.

7. The InvestEU Advisory Hub shall have local presence where necessary. Local presence shall be established in particular in Member States or regions that face difficulties in developing projects under the InvestEU Fund. The InvestEU Advisory Hub shall assist in the transfer of knowledge to the regional and local level with a view to building up regional and local capacity and expertise to be able to provide advisory support referred to in paragraph 1, including support to implement and accommodate small-sized projects.

8. In order to provide the advisory support referred in paragraph 1 and to facilitate the provision of that advisory support at local level, the InvestEU Advisory Hub shall cooperate where possible with and take advantage of the expertise of national promotional banks and institutions. Where appropriate, cooperation agreements with national promotional banks and institutions shall be concluded under the InvestEU Advisory Hub, with at least one national promotional bank or institution per Member State.

9. The implementing partners shall, as appropriate, propose to project promoters applying for financing, including in particular small-sized projects, that they request the InvestEU Advisory Hub support for their projects, where appropriate, in order to enhance the preparation of their projects and to allow for the assessment of the possibility of bundling projects. Where relevant, the implementing partners and advisory partners shall also inform the project promoters of the possibility of listing their projects on the InvestEU Portal referred to in Article 26.