On Wednesday 27 September, the Permanent Representatives of the Member States to the EU (Coreper) amended and clarified the mandate of the Estonian Presidency of the Council of the EU to finalise inter-institutional negotiations on the extension of the 'Juncker' investment plan, in Strasbourg next week.
The Estonian Presidency's mandate has been renewed: we must clarify with the European Parliament a number of elements related to the governance of the EFSI fund and, to some extent, the financing of the extension of the public guarantee to projects selected by the EIB, a diplomat said on Wednesday. On the last of these points, he acknowledged that the institutional agreement in principle reached on Tuesday 12 September went “slightly” beyond the Presidency's original mandate.
On the basis of the discussions at Coreper last week (see EUROPE 11866), the Council wishes to ensure that the final agreement on doubling the duration and firepower of the investment plan complies with the commitments made in terms of extra budget obtained by redeploying credit lines under the mid-term review of the multi-annual financial framework.
On the governance of the EFSI fund, the Parliament will be able to appoint an independent expert to a seat on the steering board of the fund. However, according to the Council, this is only on condition that the expert does not have voting rights, even in exceptional circumstances. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)