Brussels, 14/05/2013 (Agence Europe) - During a day of reflection jointly organised by the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Committee of the Regions (CoR) on Monday 13 May, the two organisations examined the best way of maximising the impact of local and regional spending and the 2014-2020 EU budget.
Given that the Union's budget has for the first time been revised downwards, it is now more crucial than ever for the regions to take full advantage of it. Two thirds of public spending in Europe is overseen by the local authorities. The president of the Committee of the Regions, Ramon Luis Valcárcel Siso, therefore explained that they needed to, “give serious consideration to finding innovative ways to finance much needed long-term investment of local authorities”. The EIB can therefore make a significant contribution to this end, as pointed out by the president of the institution, Werner Hoyer, who said that the regions had to have access to a combination of lending activities, finance and expertise if the projects were to be viable. He also indicated that, “local and regional authorities are key partners in our activities and we support them. Our role as a public institution…is to address market gaps and to unlock investments”. The institution's lending capacity for 2013-2015 is expected to be about €65-70bn per year.
Valcarcel also welcomed the “framework loans” and the “structural programme loans” introduced by the European Investment Bank and said that these instruments could help to fund a portfolio of investments and thereby overcoming any barriers related to project size. Hoyer also noted the trend to provide increasing support to “small recipients” such as SMEs, as opposed to large infrastructure projects as in the past.
The European Commissioner for the internal market, Michel Barnier, also attended the conference and explained the European Commission's work in the field of financial regulation, which included 28 legislative texts, despite the fact that, “lending is more expensive and money available more rare”. These efforts were welcomed by the president of the CoR who is, nevertheless, still waiting for the Commission to clarify application of the rules on state aid. He recommended a more flexible regime for long-term investment. (MD/transl.fl)