Brussels, 27/02/2015 (Agence Europe) - The Spanish government will provide €1.5 billion from its public investment bank, ICO, for the co-financing of projects backed by the European Fund for Strategic Investment (EFSI).
The Spanish economy and competitiveness minister explained in a press release on Friday 27 February that the Instituto de Crédito Oficial would take part in the Juncker Plan via the co-financing of projects of Spanish interest that have been selected in advance by the EFSI and that it would also provide its wide technical experience and knowledge of the terrain.
On an official visit to Madrid to promote the Juncker Plan, Investment Commissioner Jyrki Katainen immediately welcomed the news: “We are one step closer to reaching the target €315 billion total investment from public and private partners, and I encourage other member states to follow Spain and Germany's lead.”
In February, Berlin said it was planning to take part in the Juncker Plan through German public bank KfW to the tune of €8 billion. There is little enthusiasm among member states at present for providing direct contributions to the EFSI, preferring to consider indirect contributions via national promotional banks in order to get the best bang for any public bucks they put forward.
The European Fund for Strategic Investment that will be set up under the aegis of the European Investment Bank, is due to be operational in the autumn, although the European Commission was hoping to get it up and running in the second fortnight of June. The legislative procedure for providing the legal basis for the €21 billion guarantee fund (€16 billion from the EU budget and €5 billion from the EIB) will take longer than expected. Agreement in principle between the member states and the European Parliament on the draft Regulation will not be forthcoming until the beginning of the summer, after which time will be needed to finalise the legislative procedure. In the meantime, the EIB has promised to pre-finance SME development projects itself until the EFSI comes on stream (see EUROPE 11255).
On Thursday 26 February, MEPs on the European Parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee held a technical clarification meeting on the aims of the Juncker Plan and how the EFSI will operate. Beforehand, they had given the Commission a list of 110 questions about the macroeconomic impact of the Juncker Plan, the project selection process, EFSI governance and finance and how the Juncker Plan will impact on the EU's budget.
During the debate, several MEP, such as Claire Moody (S&D, the United Kingdom) and Markus Pieper (EPP, Germany), expressed concern about how the Juncker Plan will affect the financing of other European programmes and mechanisms (Horizon 2020 and the Connecting Europe Facility). A European Commission representative said he was confident that the EFSI would be able to use the leverage effect of 15 on the portfolio as a whole to attract more money for research than would be provided by the EU budget through a system of subsidies. This matter will be discussed by research ministers on Tuesday 3 March (see related article).
On Monday 2 March, the two EP committees will hold a joint public hearing on the Juncker Plan. (Mathieu Bion)