Brussels, 19/07/2007 (Agence Europe) - “This is a totally new situation”, that the Commission has already begun to look into, said the spokesman for Charlie McCreevy, the European internal market commissioner, on Thursday 19 July. He was speaking of investments made in the EU by major third country sovereign funds. Pointing out that this kind of fund must be treated equally with other private investment funds in accordance with the EU Treaty, he nonetheless acknowledged there was some “concern” on the part of the Commission. This concern is shared by some member states as regards possible hidden intentions behind these foreign state-run investment funds. Some are not simply seeking a return on their placements, he noted, going on to add: “The concern is that we believe in the internal market, which is based on certain principles of freedom”, and “we want to assure a guarantee that everybody who operates on that internal market (…) operates on the principles of that freedom as well”.
“Any solution has to be based on the EU Treaty”, in order to prevent different national approaches being defined. However, the whole difficulty lies in the fact that a response to this phenomenon must be found without it being seen as protectionism. The day before, German Chancellor Angela Merkel had expressed fear about third country state-run investment funds making investment in the EU based on political and not just economic motivations. Expressing the wish to include this matter on the EU agenda, she recommended a European approach in this field. The total value of foreign state-run investment funds is estimated at over €1,800 billion, thus making it possible to raise ten times this amount in capital on the financial markets, and is equal to the value of the American and European economies together! The largest funds include Asian and Russian funds formed by oil giants. The value of the Abu Dhabi investment fund would be €635 billion. (mb)