Brussels, 22/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - The heads of five major national development banks and European financial institutions, plus the President of the EIB, Werner Hoyer, announced on 21 April that they had written to the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, regarding the European investment plan aiming to draw down private investments of €315 billion over three years.
The banks reiterate that they have already committed to contribute over €25 billion in this context. “However, it is important that the implementation details of the plan are clarified in order to allow these joint commitments to come to fruition”, they state in their letter. They argue that in order to achieve the objectives of the European Commission, it is particularly important for the rules on state aid to take account of the specific natures of each bank or financial institution and the national markets. In particular, the guarantee provided under the plan, “if it responds to the shortcomings of the markets and complies with the competition rules, should be considered to be in line with the rules on state aid”.
The banks and financial institutions also stressed that the governance of the plan needs to be “efficient and avoid duplications”. Lastly, they “should benefit from access to the European Fund for Strategic Investments” (EFSI) and state that the “guarantee price given in this framework must be consistent with the aims of the Plan”.
The signatories of the letter are the Groupe Caisse des Dépôts for France (CDC), Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau for Germany (KfW), Cassa Depositi e Prestiti for Italy (CDP), Instituto de Credito Official for Spain (ICO) and Bank Gospodastwa Krajowego for Poland (BGK). These banks will all be contributing to the Juncker plan (see EUROPE 11299). (Elodie Lamer)