Brussels/Strasbourg, 07/06/2016 (Agence Europe) - The Juncker investment plan has the merit of existing, admittedly, but it is a long way off the mark, said the Greens/EFA and GUE/NGL groups of the European Parliament.
“At the moment, it's the public sector which is taking the risks and the private sector which is making the profits. We cannot see the fruits of the investment policy”, for instance in terms of job creation, Miguel Viegas (GUE/NGL, Portugal) said on Tuesday 7 June. He also called for the creation of “geographical criteria” to better divide up the projects whilst positively discriminating in favour of the disadvantaged countries and regions of the European Union. “The bulk of the investment is going to France, the United Kingdom and Germany”, he said, arguing that the projects were selected by the EIB on the basis of their financial profitability, without taking territorial cohesion into account.
Since the Juncker plan was launched in autumn 2015, just one Greek project has been given a public guarantee by the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI). This was an investment in an innovative farm in Crete, which obtained a loan of €15 million guaranteed by the EFSI. The Juncker plan, the aim of which is to attract more than €300 billion in additional investments over three years, does not favour any particular geographical area or sector of activities.
Yannick Jadot (Greens/EFA, France) said that although the Juncker plan finances projects promoting energy efficiency and the increased use of renewable energies, “it is adding nothing to the work of the EIB”. “It does not target SMEs or struggling countries. It is more money, but when it comes to targeting major challenges, it has failed”, he said.
The EPP group, on the other hand, supports the Commission's initiative after one year of existence and is already calling for it to be extended (see EUROPE 11563). According to Françoise Grossetête of France, “the investment plan has started to pay off”. Agreeing that it should go further, she stressed the importance of holding onto the main foundation of the Juncker plan, which is “to finance economically viable projects and not the operating expenditure of the member states”. Along the same lines, the leader of the Christian Democrat group at the EP, Germany's Manfred Weber, stressed the independence of the EIB in its choice of projects, with no political considerations at stake. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion and Aminata Niang)