Late in the afternoon of Wednesday 12 July, the representatives of the European Parliament and the Estonian Presidency of the Council of the EU are not expected to reach a definitive agreement on doubling the duration and firepower of the 'Juncker' investment plan (see EUROPE 11814).
The negotiations are struggling mainly over the financing and governance of the EFSI fund, which grants public guarantees to the projects selected under the 'Juncker' plan. On these two elements, the Estonian Presidency will negotiate with Parliament on the basis of the mandate passed onto it by the Maltese Presidency of the first half of 2017, itself inherited from the political agreement in principle reached by the Ecofin Council at the end of 2016 (see EUROPE 11679).
The increase of the public guarantee will be essentially based on mobilising the 'Horizon 2020' framework research programme and the Connecting Europe Facility. Furthermore, Estonia's mandate does not provide for the MEPs to appoint a representative to the investment committee, the EIB body responsible for selecting the projects to benefit from the 'Juncker' plan public guarantee (see EUROPE 11789).
The Parliament and the Council completely disagree over these two elements, a diplomatic source acknowledged on Tuesday 11 July. The source went on to say that an agreement on Wednesday would be difficult. This situation would put the inter-institutional negotiations back until September.
The positions of the Parliament and of the Council have, however, moved closer together on the policy for tax evasion, money laundering and the financing of terrorism to be pursued by the EIB in the framework of the investment plan. On this point, the text on the table is reported to be close to the language used on constituting the EFSD fund aiming to stimulate private investment in Africa and adapted to the specifics of the EFSI (see EUROPE 11824).
The negotiators must also finalise the provision on the financing of motorways through the investment plan, particularly in the cohesion countries.
On Tuesday, the Commission announced that €150 million of aid would be granted under the 'Juncker' plan to support the extension of the mobile broadband network of the Greek operator Cosmote. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)