Brussels, 22/07/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 22 July, the European Commission and the EIB put the finishing touches to the administrative details paving the way for the definitive launch of the Juncker plan, which is designed to draw down €315 billion in additional investments over three years.
The President of the Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, praised the speed - six months - with which the legislative procedure to set in place the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), the financial arm of the Juncker plan, has been concluded (see EUROPE 11323). The President of the EIB, Werner Hoyer, stressed the “paradigm shift” in the use of the Community budget, which is now able to provide guarantees and loans instead of just grants and subsidies. Expressing his intention to continue the work to raise awareness among private players of the existence of the Juncker plan, the Commissioner for Investment, Jyrki Katainen, stressed the need to set in place “investment platforms” at national and local level in order to bring together project carriers, potential investors and public or private entities able to provide advice. He reiterated the fact that the Juncker plan also aims to strengthen the internal market in the sectors of the digital economy and energy.
The EFSI, which will be up and running from September under the aegis of the EIB, will have a public guarantee of €21 billion (€16 billion from the budget of the EU and €5 billion from the EIB). Its mission will be to absorb the first financial losses made by the projects selected by the EIB.
The EFSI will consist of a steering committee - on which the Commission and the EIB will have seats - responsible for laying down guidelines for investments. The four members of the steering committee have been announced: Ambroise Fayolle (vice-president for innovation, EIB), Maarten Verwey (structural reform support service, European Commission), Gerassimos Thomas (Directorate General Energy, European Commission) and Irmfried Schwimann (Directorate General Competition, European Commission). The EFSI will also have an investment committee responsible for validating the award of the EFSI guarantee to projects selected by the EIB on the basis of the scoreboard of indicators which the Commission submitted to the Council and the European Parliament on Wednesday for approval.
On Wednesday, the Commission and the EIB signed an inter-institutional agreement on the working methods applicable in the framework of the Juncker plan, in line with the regulation on the EFSI. The projects pre-financed by the EIB and which will benefit from the support of the EFSI guarantee have also been confirmed (see EUROPE 11334 and 11300).
Furthermore, the Commission has finalised the provisions necessary for the creation of the European investment advisory platform. This platform will “act as single point of contact offering guidelines and advisory services, as a platform for the exchange of skills and as coordinator of the existing technical assistance”, the Commission stated in a press release. A European investment projects portal, on which project promoters seeking financing will be able to present their projects to potential investors, will also be set in place.
The role of the national promotional banks. To date, nine member states have announced their intentions of participating in the Juncker plan through co-financing from the national promotional banks (see EUROPE 11362). Regarding this, the Commission on Wednesday adopted a communication clarifying the roles these banks can play to stimulate investment in Europe in the light of the European budgetary rules on competition. The rules on state aid and the rules under the Stability Pact “must not be punitive”, said the Commissioner for Economic Affairs, Pierre Moscovici. The national co-financing of the Juncker plan via public banks will be considered neutral from the point of view of the Stability Pact, but will be taken into account statistically in the treatment of public debt.
The Commission's communication also contains guidelines on how the national promotional banks can join forces and work with the EIB to create investment platforms in the framework of the Juncker plan. (Mathieu Bion)