Brussels, 22/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - Jyrki Katainen, the Vice-President of the European Commission with responsibility for Investment, announced that the public guarantee under the Juncker investment plan had already mobilised €9 billion, at the launch of a guide on how to combine the structural and investment funds (ESI) with the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) on Monday 22 February (see other article).
According to the latest figures dated 10 February presented by the European Investment Bank (EIB), the bank has approved 46 projects for a total value of €6.7 billion under the EFSI. On top of this come projects of a value of €2.3 billion from the European Investment Fund (EIF), which also benefits from the EFSI guarantee. The commissioner explained that this €9 billion has succeeded in raising €64 billion from the private sector (€61.5 billion according to the latest available figures), or just under 20% of the targets under the Juncker three-year plan, which is designed to draw down €315 billion in additional investments between now and summer 2018. “We need to speed up if we are to meet our targets”, warned Ambroise Fayolle, Vice-President of the EIB.
According to several European sources, however, there is a disparity between the member states of Western Europe and those of Central and Eastern Europe, the latter group having applied to the EFSI for far less, as things stand. Many explanations have been offered for this, the two most frequent being the lack of administrative capacity hampering the regional and local administrations of these countries and the maturity of the projects receiving funding, which are in most cases at a more advanced stage in the countries of Western Europe. Additionally, the member states of Central and Eastern Europe require considerable but low-risk investments to renovate and develop their infrastructure, which is more a matter for the ESI than the EFSI, according to one source. Finally, a fourth explanation is the dominant culture in the member states, some of which prioritise subsidies over financial instruments.
In October of last year, the milestone of €1 billion in investments was reached (see EUROPE 11418). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)