Vice-President of the European Commission with responsibility for Economic and Monetary Affairs Jyrki Katainen took advantage of a debate with members of the European Parliament on Wednesday 9 November to criticise some member states’ attitude to the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI). He said it was often far easier to work with local and regional authorities.
Katainent was discussing the impact of the EFSI with members of the European Parliament’s internal market and consumer protection committee and said he could not understand some member states’ attitude, which will not use the fund because they do not want to use private funding.
He said local and regional authorities took a different line, being more advanced and open than national governments. He said that mayors were excellent partners particularly in the Smart Cities initiative, and he found that local governments and mayors tend to be more inclined to take advantage of a combination of the EFSI, the Structural and Investment Funds (ESI) and the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF).
Banks in the Commission’s firing line. Katainen criticised regional and national development banks, which finance 280,000 SMEs through the EFSI, for not communicating the origin of the finance, and said he hoped this would change in the future. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)