Page 11 - ePaper
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It is important to ensure that high quality and economically viable projects are selected in
key growth-enhancing areas. Projects will for example be identified according to their EU
added value, economic and social viability and the possibility for the projects to start at the
latest within the next three years, i.e. a reasonable expectation for capital expenditure in the
2015-2017 period.
The report of the Task Force on Investment – published on 9 December – already identified
more than 2000 projects worth over €1.3 trillion. It was compiled on the basis of lists
Member States prepared independently. The Task Force Report does not pre-empt financing
commitments by the Commission or the EIB. The identification of projects by the Task Force
is a first step towards creating a critical mass of projects for the EFSI to start to deliver
quickly a forward-looking and transparent pipeline of investable projects. The pipeline will
be dynamic: some projects will enter the list, others will be removed from the list, some will
get financing and some will never be financed.
There will be no such thing as a definitive list of projects that will be guaranteed financing by
the EFSI.
16. One of the selection criteria for the projects is that they "have the
potential to leverage other sources of funding". How will this criterion be
applied in practice? Won't every project that receives an EU guarantee
become more attractive and therefore have the potential to leverage
other sources of funding?
The type of risk-financing instruments will be designed so as to take uncertainty out ("first
loss protection") of as such viable projects and therefore crowd-in private sector
investments. Since the EFSI will take riskier tranches in investment projects, the private
sector will be able to join under more favourable conditions. The individual projects are not
receiving an EU guarantee. The role of the guarantee is to provide the EIB with additional
risk-bearing capacity so that it can invest in projects with a higher risk profile without losing
its triple-A rating.
17. Can the EFSI be used to finance nuclear energy projects?
Deciding the energy mix is the responsibility of each Member State.
The criteria for assessment will be specified in the Fund's investment policy. This investment
policy will be in line with President Juncker's political guidelines and will be decided by the
Steering Board of the ESFI. As President Juncker said at the European Parliament on 17
December: "We want to invest in projects that make sense. We want to invest in projects
with long-term growth potential - not into new cathedrals or new tunnels leading through
mountains that you can cross in any case. We do not want to invest in projects simply for the
sake of doing projects but because they make sense. We must counter the impression that
we have no other ideas than promoting the nuclear industry and investing in nuclear power
plants. That’s not the Commission's intention. The national energy mix is a matter for
Member States and not for the Commission in any case."
The lists of projects in the report of the joint Commission-EIB Investment Task Force
published on 9 December were prepared independently by Member States and do not pre-
judge financing commitments by the Commission or the EIB.
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key growth-enhancing areas. Projects will for example be identified according to their EU
added value, economic and social viability and the possibility for the projects to start at the
latest within the next three years, i.e. a reasonable expectation for capital expenditure in the
2015-2017 period.
The report of the Task Force on Investment – published on 9 December – already identified
more than 2000 projects worth over €1.3 trillion. It was compiled on the basis of lists
Member States prepared independently. The Task Force Report does not pre-empt financing
commitments by the Commission or the EIB. The identification of projects by the Task Force
is a first step towards creating a critical mass of projects for the EFSI to start to deliver
quickly a forward-looking and transparent pipeline of investable projects. The pipeline will
be dynamic: some projects will enter the list, others will be removed from the list, some will
get financing and some will never be financed.
There will be no such thing as a definitive list of projects that will be guaranteed financing by
the EFSI.
16. One of the selection criteria for the projects is that they "have the
potential to leverage other sources of funding". How will this criterion be
applied in practice? Won't every project that receives an EU guarantee
become more attractive and therefore have the potential to leverage
other sources of funding?
The type of risk-financing instruments will be designed so as to take uncertainty out ("first
loss protection") of as such viable projects and therefore crowd-in private sector
investments. Since the EFSI will take riskier tranches in investment projects, the private
sector will be able to join under more favourable conditions. The individual projects are not
receiving an EU guarantee. The role of the guarantee is to provide the EIB with additional
risk-bearing capacity so that it can invest in projects with a higher risk profile without losing
its triple-A rating.
17. Can the EFSI be used to finance nuclear energy projects?
Deciding the energy mix is the responsibility of each Member State.
The criteria for assessment will be specified in the Fund's investment policy. This investment
policy will be in line with President Juncker's political guidelines and will be decided by the
Steering Board of the ESFI. As President Juncker said at the European Parliament on 17
December: "We want to invest in projects that make sense. We want to invest in projects
with long-term growth potential - not into new cathedrals or new tunnels leading through
mountains that you can cross in any case. We do not want to invest in projects simply for the
sake of doing projects but because they make sense. We must counter the impression that
we have no other ideas than promoting the nuclear industry and investing in nuclear power
plants. That’s not the Commission's intention. The national energy mix is a matter for
Member States and not for the Commission in any case."
The lists of projects in the report of the joint Commission-EIB Investment Task Force
published on 9 December were prepared independently by Member States and do not pre-
judge financing commitments by the Commission or the EIB.
11
