Luxembourg, 10/10/2006 (Agence Europe) - The EU25 finance ministers did not make much headway on Tuesday regarding the road to be taken for renewing the external lending mandate of the European Investment Bank (EIB). The Finnish EU Presidency will be tabling a new compromise in November to reach a political agreement by the end of the year. During their first exchanges, in July, the finance ministers had expressed differences with the Commission proposal, not only about the amounts available for lending by the Bank outside the EU but also about the new geographical breakdown (EUROPE 9230). The Council meeting on Tuesday essentially confirmed the different positions taken.
Many countries, such as the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Austria, Slovakia, Sweden and the United Kingdom, would sooner have a smaller envelope of €27.3 billion. Belgium, Greece, Italy and Portugal hope to increase this to €30.2 billion and only Spain would like a budget as close as possible to what the Commission is suggesting. The Commission has in fact proposed setting at €33 billion the amounts available over seven years (2007-2013) with regional breakdown more in favour of the EU Neighbourhood countries but also Asia and Latin America in particular. €9 billion would be available for the pre-accession countries, compared to €10 billion between 2000 and 2006, €15 billion going to Neighbourhood countries (Mediterranean, Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Russia) compared to €7.1 billion before. Asia and Latin America would benefit from €6 billion instead of the earlier sum of €2.5 billion and Africa and the ACP countries would receive €1.5 billion instead of the €800 million at present. A reserve of €1.5 billion is also foreseen. In terms of geographic breakdown, a large number of Member States hope that emphasis will be placed on the accession and/or Neighbourhood countries, with, here too, a distinction being made depending on whether they look towards the East or the West. The clearer position of the Netherlands is for gradual elimination of the amounts available for Asia and Latin America, but Spain is opposed to this. (ab)