Brussels, 14/01/2016 (Agence Europe) - By the end of 2015, the Juncker plan had generated €50 billion in additional investments, or 16% of the total investment objective hoped for over three years, according to figures published on Thursday 14 January by the European Investment Bank (EIB).
Of the €50 billion of investments mobilised, half stems from 42 projects supported by the EIB and benefiting from support of €5.7 billion under the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), the financial arm of the Juncker investment plan, which has been operational since September 2015 (see EUROPE 11364). The other half came about as a result of 84 operations supported by the European Investment Fund (EIF), which received European support of €1.8 billion from the EFSI.
By the end of 2015, we had reached “16% of the total investment target”, the EIB president, Werner Hoyer, announced on Thursday 14 January. He declined to suggest any specific figures for the 2016 or 2017 results, but stated that he was “optimistic” about the European institution's ability to hit the total investment target of the Juncker plan, which has been laid down at €315 billion in additional investments by mid-2017. More than half of the projects supported will serve to protect the environment or fight climate change, with the remainder of the projects aiming, amongst other things, to boost innovation or support SMEs.
Hoyer went on to say that all operations backed by the public guarantee based on the Community budget via the EFSI had received the green light of the European Commission. These operations will not be re-examined by the investment committee, the EFSI body officially in charge of awarding this guarantee. The investment committee, which was only recently set in place, will be able to take up its duties from “the end of January”, the EIB president stressed. He also highlighted the importance of decentralised, effective hubs to advise and help to bring project owners and investors together.
When asked about Chinese participation in the Juncker plan, Hoyer said that he was in “close contact” with Chinese authorities and investors wishing to get involved in the Juncker plan, but did not clarify the details of this participation (see EUROPE 11400). Similarly, contact has been established between the EIB and representatives of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), which will be officially constituted in the next few days (see EUROPE 11285).
VW. As regards relations between the EIB and the car manufacturer VW, which has been accused of fraud regarding the emissions level of certain diesel vehicles in the United States, Hoyer referred to a loan of €400 million signed in 2009 and paid back in full in 2014, for which any link with the fraudulent activities had been neither confirmed nor completely ruled out. “To be on the safe side, we have decided to put on hold any new loans to Volkswagen for the time being”, he said, suggesting that this would continue for at least one year. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)