EFSI: President Markkula and MEPs express full support to VP Katainen but improvements still needed

During the inaugural meeting of the European Parliament's Long Term Investment and Reindustrialisation Intergroup, hosted by the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) on 13 April, President Markku Markkula reiterated Europe's regions' and cities' commitment in delivering the Juncker Plan on the ground. The CoR's President also pleaded for a stronger role for regional investment platforms which, he argued, should be jointly established and managed by regional authorities and promotional banks.

During the debate with the European Commission's Vice-President Jyrki Katainen, the Chair of the Intergroup, MEP Dominique Riquet, (EPP/FR), stressed that the Juncker Plan's had the potential to restart long-term investment after a dramatic drop over the last few years. He also argued that improvements were needed to ensure it was successfully implemented. The European Fund for Strategic Investment (EFSI) should avoid diverting resources from Horizon 2020 and the Connecting Europe Facility and find alternative financing sources. Furthermore, the role of co-legislators in the EFSI governance should be strengthened to ensure that all EU-promoted investment match with the Union's objectives.

Speaking at the meeting, Vice-President Katainen focussed on the need to accompany the roll-out of the Plan with a faster completion of the EU single market. Removing barriers to competition and trade in digital, energy and capital markets were the key challenges over the coming years.

The debate benefitted of the presence of more than 300 stakeholders and took place just three days before the official CoR position on the new Investment Fund and European Fund for strategic Investments, drafted by rapporteur, Claude Gewerc, is adopted at the Plenary Session. The keynote speech delivered by Franco Bassanini, President of Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, stressed how national promotion banks and institutions are committed to co-funding the Plan but he shared concerns related to the chance that compliance with state-aid rules is called into question; to ensuring that EFSI- guaranteed financial instruments will charge costs that are below market prices; as well as the need to avoid excessive bureaucratisation in the procedures to fund investment platform.

CoR President Markkula underlined the valuable opportunities to cooperate with the newly established European Parliament Intergroup: "Today's kick-off is excellent news for European regions and cities. CoR local and regional politicians are ready to join forces with the members of the European Parliament and all stakeholders to ensure Europe returns to seeing growth. We should also take this opportunity to integrate new combinations of investment with the more traditional methods, for example innovation hubs that create favourable conditions for start-ups".