EFSI is a first step to close the European investment gap

CEEP welcomes the adoption of the EFSI regulation by the European Parliament, a few weeks following the Council’s approval. The Investment Plan can now become fully operational, and CEEP encourages Vice-President Katainen to speed up the work on the European Investment Advisory Hub to make it a “daily support” for projects promoters who already have questions on “how to use the EFSI”.

Valeria Ronzitti, CEEP Secretary General, commented the final version of the text, which is the heart of the European Commission’s Investment Plan:

We are glad to see in the final text of the EFSI regulation many of the demands CEEP put forward. The final text avoids wordings which could have excluded ex-ante publicly-managed projects and public investors. References to the Europe 2020 strategy and to the 2013 Social Investment Plan are now clear. An increased transparency and accountability of the mechanisms are also important additions to the initial Commission’s proposal.

 

However, we regret that the EFSI still focuses on projects regardless of their geographic location. While this will increase the volume of cross-border projects and fundings, it ignores the different investment needs of Member States. It is clear that the EFSI, while being an important tool, will not be able to fulfil alone the investment gap in Europe. CEEP will now concentrate on supporting the development of the third pillar of the Investment Plan to reduce that gap, while pushing for a holistic approach towards long term investments in all EU policies”.