Strasbourg, 10/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - Germany's Udo Bullmann and Spain's Eider Gardiazabal, respectively for the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group, co-rapporteur for the economic and monetary affairs committee and shadow rapporteur for the budgets committee at the European Parliament on the draft regulation instituting a European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), stressed their determination to fight to set in place a strong financial instrument, on the sidelines of the plenary session in Strasbourg on Tuesday 10 March.
“The EFSI is a key answer to the investment gap in the EU, which today is still investing less than before the financial crisis. We strongly support this new impetus from the Commission as a decisive step towards growth and jobs in the EU”, Bullmann commented, following the agreement in principle reached the same day at the Ecofin Council on this draft text (see other article).
The financial arm of the €315 billion euro investment plan over three years proposed by the 'Juncker' Commission, the EFSI will stand guarantor for the first losses made by the projects selected, on the basis of a pillar of €21 billion in European funds (a guarantee of €16 billion from the EU budget and €5 billion from the EIB) (see EUROPE 11270).
In order to make the instrument a success, however, technical adjustments will be needed, Bullmann said. “The EFSI should target projects with a higher risk profile. Only projects that would not have gotten financing from the market or other sources should be considered eligible. This ensures that high-quality projects such as investments in infrastructure, broadband, energy efficiency and into the SME sector can be supported under this scheme”, he stressed.
The S&D group wants the European Parliament to be fully involved in the governance structures of the EFSI, in order to make sure that EU resources are being used efficiently. In particular, it will aim to ensure that the financing of the EU's guarantee of €16 billion does not come at the expense of the funding allocated to the research programme 'Horizon 2020' or the Connecting Europe Facility, which are well established and pursue the same ends as the future projects to be supported.
In order to cover the risks related to the EU guarantee, the S&D group argues in favour of the creation of a guarantee fund to be fed into over time by the EU budget. To this end, the funds will be gradually made available by the Parliament and the Council by means of the annual budgetary procedure, making use of all available resources in the multi-annual financial framework 2014-2020, particularly the flexibility instrument in the budget, worth nearly €500 million a year, Gardiazabal explained.
The joint draft report of the economic and monetary affairs and budgets committees is expected to be adopted on 20 April, so that inter-institutional negotiations with the Council can start, with a view to a definitive political agreement before the summer. (Emmanuel Hagry)