On Wednesday 16 January, the European Parliament adopted, by a large majority, the draft joint report of the committees on budgets and economic and monetary affairs which sets out how the InvestEU Fund, the financial instrument that will continue the work of the Juncker investment plan, will be able to attract nearly €700 billion in additional investment to the EU between 2021 and 2027 (see EUROPE 12159).
MEPs have made virtually no changes to the text submitted to the Parliament by the two parliamentary committees. Almost all the amendments tabled by the GUE/NGL and Greens/EFA groups were rejected, as they were mainly aimed at focusing the way in which the InvestEU Fund functions even more closely on social and environmental objectives.
However, precisely the same amendment put forward by the ALDE Group and the committee on industry and research was adopted, adding the maritime economy to the list of areas eligible for support from the fund.
While the Commission has suggested setting the amount of the public guarantee from the EU budget that will be managed by the InvestEU Fund at €38 billion, MEPs want to raise the amount of the guarantee to €40.8 billion. The additional amounts of the public guarantee would be used to support more projects that meet two specific InvestEU windows, namely SMEs (€12.5 billion) and the social, educational and cultural sectors (€5.57 billion).
MEPs reinforced the sustainability goal of the future fund in comparison with the initial proposal by ensuring that at least 40% of its interventions contribute to the fight against climate change.
Governance. MEPs are also changing the governance of the InvestEU Fund. This is a sensitive issue: the EIB does not want the European Commission to play the role of banker (see EUROPE 12065) and the Commission does not want to be deprived of its prerogatives in the management of European financial programmes and instruments (Connecting Europe Facility, COSME) which will be brought together within the InvestEU programme.
The Parliament therefore requires a steering committee to be set up to determine the strategic direction of the fund and its operational procedures. They propose that this committee should consist of three members from the Commission, one member from the EIB, one member from the fund’s implementing partners (international financial institutions, national development banks, etc.) and one independent expert appointed by the European Parliament.
MEPs did not, however, provide a suggested breakdown of the management of the EU public guarantee, whereas the previous EU Council Presidency (Austria) proposed granting 75% of the guarantee to the EIB and 25% to implementing partners.
European Finance Ministers will be asked on Tuesday 22 January about governance of the future InvestEU Fund (see EUROPE 12173). (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)