Brussels, 22/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 22 April, the European Investment Bank (EIB) announced that it was to pre-finance four investment projects in four member states, which will ultimately be supported by the Juncker investment plan.
The operation, for a total of €300 million, will be used to fund duly selected projects in the following sectors: - a healthcare research centre in Spain; - the extension of an airport in Croatia; - the construction of 14 new health centres in Ireland; - support to industrial innovation projects in Italy. This assistance will allow investments to be made for a total value of €850 million, the EIB states in a press release.
This move has allowed the European institution to make good on its promise to the Ecofin Council to pre-finance investment projects in the framework of the Juncker plan before the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) is up and running in the autumn (see EUROPE 11255). The announcement was described as “fantastic” by the Commissioner in charge of growth, Jyrki Katainen.
The EIB will contribute €5 billion to make up the public guarantee of €21 billion for the EFSI. The EU's budget is to feed €16 billion into this guarantee. Although they can agree on that final amount, opinions differ between the Council and the European Parliament over where to take the money from the EU budget in order to achieve this, with inter-institutional negotiations on the draft regulation instituting the EFSI due to start this Thursday 23 April (see EUROPE 11298).
It is worth noting that the EIF fund, which is part of the EIB group, approved other transactions earlier this week which will make it possible to mobilise up to €1.3 billion in investments in three countries (France, Portugal and the United Kingdom), in partnership with the national promotional banks. (Mathieu Bion)