Launched in 2015 as part of the ‘Juncker’ plan (see EUROPE 11364/2) to boost investment in the EU, the European Investment Advisory Hub has not had the desired impact, according to a new report by the European Court of Auditors, published on Tuesday 12 May.
The auditors concluded that despite the satisfaction expressed by the beneficiaries with the services provided, too few missions had been carried out to have a significant impact on boosting investment in projects within the EU.
The audit, which covered the platform’s activities between 2015 and 2018, revealed that during this period the platform received 1,091 requests for support, less than one per day on average. Of these requests, only 285 (26%) resulted in the allocation of platform resources or the provision of advice to public and private beneficiaries, according to the report.
In concrete terms, this means that during this period, the platform used just over a quarter of the funding available to it from the EU budget.
According to the auditors, this was also due to the fact that the platform did not have a sufficiently clear strategy to focus its support where it could bring the highest added value.
To address these shortcomings, the report makes several recommendations, including strengthening selection procedures for assessing the potential of the missions envisaged in order to maximise the platform’s contribution.
“The new InvestEU advisory hub proposed for the 2021-2027 programme period should focus resources on clearly targeted and defined needs, improve outreach of its activities and ensure appropriate monitoring”, said Annemie Turtelboom, who was responsible for the audit.
See the report: https://bit.ly/2yI5UkV (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)