Luxembourg, 16/06/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 17 June, the Ecofin Council is expected to send out a positive signal in favour of extending the Juncker investment plan, which is scheduled to run until 2018.
Following a debate of the European finance ministers, the president-in-exercise of the Ecofin Council, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, is expected to express the willingness of the member states to build on the existing regulatory framework to carry the current experiment through to its conclusion by extending its term by one or two years. It is not a question of putting more money in, a European source however warned. At the end of June, the European Council is to take position on the issue, which it will do on the basis of the position of the Ecofin Council.
The Juncker plan, which has been in place since autumn 2015, has mobilised more than €100 billion of private investments (see EUROPE 11559). On the basis of this positive interim result, the European Commission has expressed its intention of presenting a legislative initiative to extend the Juncker plan (see EUROPE 11563). During a plenary session debate early in June, many MEPs flagged up the problems of demonstrating that the projects supported by the European Fund for Strategic Investments would not have seen the light of day without the existence of the Juncker plan (see EUROPE 11568). (Original in French by Mathieu Bion)