Brussels, 15/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - The main political powers at the European Parliament are making an effort in the economic and monetary affairs committee and the budgets committee to reach a convergence in their views ahead of the joint vote on the draft regulation to establish the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), the financial arm of the Juncker Plan.
Co-rapporteur Udo Bullmann (S&D, Germany) told a few journalists on Wednesday 15 April that the European Parliament was not divided, far from it, and all the major obstacles had been eliminated among the big political groups ahead of the vote on Monday.
The main battle will be budgetary, between the European Parliament wanting to play a full role as budget authority and the European Commission and the member states that want to take the necessary cash from the EU budget as soon as possible for the EFSI's €16 billion public guarantee fund (see EUROPE 11294).
The Commission and Council are refusing to budge on this question, complained Eider Gardiazábal (S&D, Spain), saying that the negotiating position to be adopted by the European Parliament on Monday would ask the other two European institutions to first make gradual use of the existing margins of flexibility in the EU budget before taking cash from the budgets for programmes and mechanisms that are already investment-oriented ('Horizon 2020' and the Connecting Europe mechanism). She added that the EP had gone along with a lower Multiannual Financial Framework because the Commission and Council promised that there would be greater budget flexibility and now that point has been reached and it is time to recognise it.
The EP is not contesting in any way the objective of putting together a public guarantee from the EU budget in the region of €16 billion. Gardiazabal said that it was important to secure a €16 billion guarantee for private investors putting their money in projects backed by the EFSI and to this end, she said the guarantee was “irrevocable and unconditional.” The Spanish socialist pointed out that in order to guarantee the €60 billion European Financial Stability Mechanism (EFSM) that is managed by the European Commission, not a single euro was taken from the EU budget, there being simply the commitment to make use of the budget if genuinely required.
Delegated act. On Monday, MEPs will stress the importance of the Juncker Plan backing additional projects that would otherwise find it hard to get off the ground due to lack of investment. The EP wants the EFSI to select projects that will put the European sustainable environment and social policies into practice. In order to be able to have an influence on the EFSI's investment policy, the EP will demand that investment guidelines which the EFSI's board draw up are the subject of a 'delegated act' (legislation), for which the EP and Council of Ministers are on a par.
The industry committee's amendment to reserve €5 billion for projects promoting energy efficiency may not be voted through by the main committees on Monday and would therefore require a new vote. Kathleen Van Brempt (S&D, Belgium) said that negotiations were under way in this connection. (Mathieu Bion)