Euro MPs will this evening give the green light for the European Fund for Strategic Investment (EFSI), a new tool to boost growth and job creation in Europe. The EFSI is the cornerstone of the €315 billion investment plan proposed by the European Commission. The first financing is expected later this year.
Ahead of the vote the European Parliament’s co-negotiator, Udo Bullmann said:
"I am proud of the outcome of the negotiations. This is a great success for the S&D as well as for the European Parliament as a whole. We now have a concrete tool to initiate a trend reversal in economic policy and to pave the way for investments urgently required in Europe.
"The Parliament has taken steps successfully to ensure that the EU invests in modernizing its economies, instead of taking us back to the past. For the first time, these investments will be explicitly recognized in the context of the Stability and Growth Pact, rather than being penalized. This will allow all countries, including those in a difficult economic situation, to invest more.
"In addition, we put an end to the politics of concealing and disguising – clear responsibilities are attributed and a democratic involvement of the European Parliament in the appointment of the Managing Director is ensured."
S&D Group negotiator for the budget committee, Eider Gardiazabal added:
"Negotiations on the EFSI financing have been tough. Right from the beginning, we rejected the idea to take money from key European programmes to finance the EU guarantee fund. In the end , we succeeded in mitigating, as much as possible, the cuts to the Horizon 2020 (Research and development) programme and the connecting Europe facility (infrastructures in transport, energy and broad band)."
S&D Group vice-president and negotiator on the industry, energy and research committee, Kathleen van Brempt said:
"We made sure that the EFSI will fund investment for the future and not from the past. We pushed for the introduction of clear guidelines and criteria for the selection of projects. We don’t want to see new airports. We want investments linked to the European Union’s priorities in the field of climate change or energy efficiency for instance."
S&D Group negotiator on the transport committee, Inés Ayala Sender concluded:
"We succeeded in reducing the budget impact in the Connecting Europe Facility, the most genuine common EU programme in favour of more sustainable and innovative transport infrastructures, systems and services. Thanks to the Parliament, the EFSI will be now in coherence with the TEN-T programme running since 2014 and will include EU transport experts. Now it is time for the Commission and the EIB to deliver and show how the EFSI's leverage effect meets the needs of a labour-intensive sector as it is transport and mobility, with particular attention to urban nodes."
Find out more about the main S&D achievements here:
http://www.socialistsanddemocrats.eu/sites/default/files/EFSI%20-%201st%20Reading%20Agreement.pdf
MEPs involved
Vice-president
S&D Group Bureau, International Trade, Development & Global Sustainability
DEVE, INTA, INTER-PARLIAMENTARY DELEGATIONS, ENLARGEMENT
Belgium
