| Author (Corporate) | Council of the European Union: General Secretariat |
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| Series Title | Press Release |
| Series Details | PRES/15/103 (10.03.15) |
| Publication Date | 10/03/2015 |
| Content Type | News |
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The Council of the European Union agreed on 10 March 2015 its negotiating stance on a proposed regulation on a European fund for strategic investments (EFSI). The Council agreed that the fund would be built on €16 billion in guarantees from the EU budget and €5 billion from the EIB. To facilitate the payment of potential guarantee calls, a guarantee fund would be established that would gradually reach €8 billion (i.e. 50% of total EU guarantee obligations) by 2020. In line with the European Commission's proposal, EU funding would mostly come by redeploying grants from the Horizon 2020 programme (research and innovation) and the Connecting Europe facility (transport, energy and digital networks), as well as unused margins in the budget. Separately, the European Court of Auditors issued an Opinion on the proposed EFSI in March 2015. The EU taxpayer will be in the frontline for absorbing losses on public projects funded with private finance under the EFSI. That means that the right arrangements need to be in place from the outset to ensure that projects guaranteed by the EU meet its criteria and can deliver public benefits. It also needs to be clear that the overall cost to the EU budget will not exceed €16bn. Furthermore, the potential liabilities to other sources of public funds will need to be carefully controlled and disclosed. EU taxpayers will need assuring that EFSI funds will be as well spent as EU budget funds. For that reason the same basic rules and principles of sound financial management should apply. In the ECA’s view, the Commission's proposal says too little about: • How the performance of projects under EFSI will be selected, monitored and assessed; The European Investment Bank (EIB) also expressed its views on state aid rules and the guarantees issued to boost investment under the investment plan. In January 2014, there had been already a joint statement of the European Commission and the EIB on the subject. |
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| Source Link | http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2015/03/150310-project-financing-council-agrees-negotiating-stance-european-fund-for-strategic-investments/ |
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| Subject Categories | Economic and Financial Affairs |
| Countries / Regions | Europe |
