European Parliament adopts EFSI Regulation allowing implementation of the Investment Plan for Europe to begin

On Wednesday evening, the European Parliament plenary voted through the Regulation for a European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), the heart of the Commission’s €315 billion Investment Plan. Vice-President Katainen, responsible for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness, said: “Now we must begin implementing the Investment Plan, and the Commission is already working on the next steps. In less than a month the Commission will be in a position to decide whether to extend the EU guarantee to the projects pre-financed by the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Investment Fund (EIF). The Commission will appoint their three members to the EFSI’s Steering Board – alongside the EIB’s member – and it will issue the Scoreboard for project criteria through a Delegated Act. The process for recruiting the members of the Investment Committee will be launched within two weeks, with a view to having the Committee in place by September. The European Parliament will have the occasion to hear and hopefully approve the candidates for the position of Managing Director and deputy Managing Director of the EFSI in September. We also plan to have the European Investment Advisory Hub up and running soon after the summer, and the European Investment Project Portal to be activated by end of the year.” Read Vice-President Katainen‘s speech from the plenary debate and watch the video ‘Staying ahead – Investing in Europe’.