Page 93 - Social Enterprise A New Business Paradigm for Thailand

Support for social enterprises under the EaSI program involves the use of financial instruments
that guarantee loans for micro-borrowers and social enterprises. This includes the provision of

the EaSI Guarantee, which is channeled through selected financial intermediaries, such as
microfinance institutions, social finance organizations, guarantee institutions, and commercial
banks. These intermediaries provide loans to social enterprises and micro-enterprises under
more favorable conditions, such as lower interest rates or reduced collateral requirements.

The EU body designated to manage this financial instrument is the European Investment Fund
(EIF). Initially, the EU allocated a budget of EUR 193 million for the program’s implementation
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from 2014 to 2020. In 2015, the program’s launch year, EUR 96 million was allocated, with at
least EUR 40 million specifically earmarked to guarantee loans for social enterprises. However,

due to a higher-than-expected volume of funding requests, the initial budget proved insufficient.
As a result, the total allocation was later increased from EUR 96 million to EUR 400 million to
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meet the growing demand .
The EaSI Guarantee is a no-cost service that provides loan guarantees for up to 80% of the loan
value, with a maximum duration of 60 months. For micro-enterprises, the loan cap is EUR 25,000,
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while for social enterprises, it is EUR 500,000. Between 2014 and 2020, the EaSI Guarantee
supported a total of 113 projects involving both microfinance providers and social enterprise
finance providers. The EU allocated EUR 130 million to this initiative, EUR 90 million for

microfinance and EUR 40 million for social enterprise financing. In addition, EaSI provided EUR 45
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million to build the capacity of the selected financial intermediaries. It is estimated that from
the program’s inception through to 2024, the EaSI Guarantee has helped catalyze over EUR 500
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million in loans to more than 3,500 social enterprises across the European Union. At present,
the EaSI Programme and its financial instruments for supporting micro-enterprises and social
enterprises continue under the framework of the InvestEU Programme. The operational structure
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of EaSI has now been integrated into the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+).
In summary, the EaSI Guarantee is a financial instrument deployed by the European Union to

enable social enterprises to access credit under more favorable conditions. This support facilitates
the establishment and long-term sustainability of social enterprises. Moreover, the instrument

27 European Investment Fund, EaSI Guarantee Financial Instrument, 2016,
28 European Commission, Social enterprises and their ecosystems in Europe, op. cit., Page 91.
29 European Investment Fund, EaSI Guarantee Financial Instrument, 2016, op. cit.
30 European Commission, Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, Microfinance and Social Enterprise Finance,
Source: https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?langId=en&catId=1084, 2024.
31 European Commission, Social enterprises and their ecosystems in Europe, op. cit., Page 91.
32 European Commission, European Social Fund Plus, ESF+direct (EaSI), Source: https://european-social-fund-
plus.ec.europa.eu/en/esf-direct-easi, 2024.
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