The European Parliament's Committees on Budget and Economic and Monetary Affairs want the InvestEU fund to attract nearly €700 billion in additional private investment over the period 2021-2027.
To do this, they estimate that the public guarantee that will allow the fund to incur the first losses linked to the failure of supported projects will have to amount to €40.8 billion, whereas the Committee recommended a €38 billion guarantee to generate €650 billion in additional private investment (see EUROPE 12035).
The additional amounts of the public guarantee would be used to support more projects that meet two specific InvestEU windows objectives, namely SMEs (€12.5 billion) and the social, educational and cultural sectors (€5.57 billion). The amounts of the guarantee allocated to the other two specific objectives would remain unchanged at €11.5 billion.
The InvestEU fund, which will bring together 14 existing financial instruments into a single structure, will build on the success of the European Fund for Strategic Investment (EFSI), the financial arm of the Juncker Active Investment Plan until 2020 (see EUROPE 11911).
The governance of the future fund is one of the controversial issues: the EIB, which manages the EFSI fund, fears that the European Commission will play a banking role by managing investEU (see EUROPE 12065).
In response to these institutional tensions, MEPs introduce a steering board to define InvestEU's strategic orientations and operational policies.
This committee would be empowered to propose to the Commission to modify the breakdown of the public guarantee in line with the four strategic objectives of the fund. It would be composed of three members of the Commission, one member of the EIB, one member from the fund's implementing partners (national development banks, etc. - Ed.) and one independent expert appointed by the European Parliament. With a three-year term of office renewable once, its president would be one of the persons appointed by the Commission.
Several associations, including the Climate Action Network and Counter Balance, welcomed the fact that MEPs set a target of 40% investment in projects to combat climate change. However, they criticise the fact that the future regulation does not prohibit investment in fossil fuels, particularly in the gas sector. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)