Brussels, 20/10/2011 (Agence Europe) - All European Parliament political groups combined welcome the package tabled by the Commission on 19 October, including a funding mechanism of €50 billion, to fill in the missing links in the major infrastructure for transport, energy and telecommunications networks. The Greens, however, criticise the Commission's choice to give preference to energy infrastructure for traditional sources, especially gas.
Speaking on behalf of the EP, Corien Wortmann-Kool of the Netherlands and Jean-Paul Gauzès of France particularly welcomed the proposal for a European project bond, an instrument that, they believe, will provide sufficient confidence for attracting more private financing. They also welcomed the role of the EIB.
Socialists and Democrats (S&D) take the view that the cofinancing mechanism proposed will make it possible to move one step further to completing the single market, which is partly based on optimal interlinking of smart and sustainable grids in three sectors, comments Marita Ulvskog. The Swedish MEP nonetheless fears that the budgets of €31.7 and €9.1 billion foreseen for the transport and energy networks will not be sufficient to guarantee massive investment required by 2020 in each of the sectors, which would amount to €500 and €200 billion respectively.
ALDE President Guy Verhofstadt, the former Belgian prime minister, who has often called in favour of project bonds to finance the major infrastructure, is delighted, saying: “The decline of the public investment ratio by more than 1% of GDP in the last three decades has turned the eurozone into a low-growth area. If we want to stimulate growth and job creation in Europe, we have to go on with upgrading our major infrastructure networks and be creative about attracting third party investments. Using the EIB as a main partner both for the expertise and for the strong AAA rating that it enjoys will substantially increase investment attractiveness”.
The Commission's package gave rise to most criticism among the Greens/EFA. Although they welcome the package on the whole, Yannick Jadot of France and Claude Turmes of Luxemburg deplore the fact that the interest given to fossil fuels is to the detriment of renewable energies, not only on the financial level but also with respect of transparency of procedures. They consider the proposals promoting gas pipelines such as Nabucco as “retrograde”, despite the fact that there is a shortfall of renewable energies. (EH/transl.jl)