Member States' ambassadors to the European Union (Coreper) gave a mandate to the Romanian Presidency of the Council on Wednesday 20 February to start negotiations with Parliament on the proposal for a regulation establishing the InvestEU programme after 2020, which will bring together 14 European financial instruments (see EUROPE 12185).
However, due to the inability of Member States to agree on the location of the secretariat of the Investment Committee of the InvestEU Fund, the financial arm of the programme of the same name, the matter could return to the Coreper meeting next week, if the European Commission and the EIB do not reach an agreement on the location of the secretariat.
Building on the positive experience of the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) under the Juncker Investment Plan, the InvestEU Fund will provide a public guarantee based on the EU budget to offset any initial losses incurred in the implementation of certain risky investments.
The EIB Group will manage 75% of this public guarantee and the remaining part will be in the hands of national implementing partners such as national development banks.
A steering board will define the strategic orientations of the programme. According to the Member States, it will be composed of: - four representatives of the Commission; - three representatives of the EIB; - two representatives appointed by the implementing partners.
An investment committee will be established to examine projects requesting support from the InvestEU Fund. It will be supported by a secretariat composed of four independent experts, two appointed by the Commission and two by the EIB.
Symbolising a rivalry between the European Commission and the EIB over the management of the programme, already identified during a recent ministerial discussion at the Ecofin Council (see EUROPE 12177), the location of the Investment Committee Secretariat - in Brussels within the Commission or in Luxembourg within the EIB - was the last point to be settled at Coreper on Wednesday.
The amount of the EU public guarantee - €38 billion in current prices - will have to be the subject of a global agreement in the context of the negotiations on the 2021-2027 multiannual financial framework. The European Parliament wants this guarantee to amount to €40.8 billion (see EUROPE 12174).
The Romanian Presidency of the Council hopes that an interinstitutional agreement with the European Parliament will be possible before the end of the current legislature. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)