Brussels, 09/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 9 June, the ambassadors of the member states to the EU (Coreper) approved the compromise reached by the Latvian Presidency of the Council of the EU and the representatives of the European Parliament on the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI).
The financial arm of the Juncker investment plan, designed to draw down more than €315 billion in additional investments over three years, the EFSI will support projects selected by the EIB, providing them with a public guarantee of €21 billion (€16 billion from the EU budget and €5 billion from the EIB) on any first losses made (see EUROPE 11323).
The final inter-institutional negotiations focused on the details for setting in place the public guarantee from the EU budget. This will be based on a special guarantee fund with an envelope of €8 billion, €5 billion of which will come from Community programmes ('Horizon 2020' and the Connecting Europe Facility) and €3 billion from the budgetary margins for the years 2014 and 2015. (Mathieu Bion)