The Commissioner for Growth and Investment, Jyrki Katainen, firmly believes that the 'Juncker' plan, designed to draw down €315 billion in new investments up to 2018, is working just as it was anticipated when it was designed in 2015. Hence the importance of doubling its duration and firepower.
In one year, the public guarantee of the EU Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) has attracted €154 billion in investments, 60% of which are of private origin, the Commissioner said on Tuesday 29 November. He explained that the 'Juncker' plan had remedied the dysfunction of part of the market and had given rise to projects that would not have seen the light of day without an instrument of this kind or, at least, not on this scale.
"We are going to double the EFSI in terms of its duration and financial capacity", Katainen said, on the basis of the specific legislative proposal presented by the Commission in mid-September (see EUROPE 11624 and 11676). He expressed his hopes that the European finance ministers would reach a political agreement in principle on Tuesday 6 December, as requested by the European Council, and that the European Parliament would do likewise, possibly in February or March, so that the extension of the 'Juncker' plan can be definitively approved by the end of May 2017.
The former Finnish Prime Minister referred to the impact assessments describing the initial results of the European initiative, in particular those of the European Court of Auditors (see EUROPE 11666) and of the consultancy firm Ernst & Young (see EUROPE 11667). He stressed that the Commission has taken account of the recommendations made regarding the geographical location of the projects, a better combination between the EFSI and other sources European funding and governance of the 'Juncker' plan. If, rather than the number of projects, you took as a criterion the size of the projects in relation to the GDP of the countries where they have been implemented, you would get a very different image of the impact of the 'Juncker' plan, he said. He listed the countries that come out top under this categorisation: Estonia, Bulgaria, Spain, Italy, Greece, Lithuania, Latvia and Portugal. As for the governance of the 'Juncker' plan, the decisions of the investment committee of the EIB, which is responsible for selecting the projects, will be made public, to better justify the additional nature of the projects chosen.
Lastly, Katainen said that the United Kingdom leaving the EU would not bring about any major changes, as the member state will remain a member of the EIB until further notice. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)