EU Parliament approves EFSI

By Ingemar Pongratz

The European Parliament has released a press-release informing that the the European Parliament has accepted the EU Commission proposal to establish the European Fund for Strategic Investment (EFSI) also known as the Juncker Plan and that the EU Parliament approves EFSI.

EFSI main objective is to combine public and private funding to to provide much need Investment capital to European Industry in particular to European SME.

To create EFSI the European Commission suggested that funds should be diverted from other already accepted initiatives in particular the Connecting Europe Facility and Horizon 2020.

The suggested to use funds from Horizon 2020 to capitalize EFSI created a large degree of concern among the European Academic sector, in particular due to the plans to use funds that were originally plan to fund basic research. The European Academic community rallied to protect the Horizon 2020 research funding scheme.

In addition, several members of the European Parliament expressed their concern on how the legislative process took place. Following several rounds of negotiation between the Parliament and the EU Commission, the parties agreed on a compromise that would reduce the funding provided from Horizon 2020 funding scheme to the Juncker plan.

EFSI will become operational after the summer 2015 and will fund both Strategic European Infrastructure projects and also will provide Investment Capital to European Companies.

Part of the compromised includes that the European Parliament will be consulted when the chair of EFSI will be appointed and also that project that receive loans from EFSI need to address European Policy objectives, for example in Climate Change.

Ingemar Pongratz is an European Funding specialist who supports organizations looking for EU funding for projects. Through Pongratz Consulting, we help companies with the practical aspects of applying for EU projects. Please contact us if you are interested in our services, using the Online Contact Form or by sending an email to:

Ingemar.Pongratz(a)pongratzconsulting.com

Soder by Ingemar Pongratz