EU institutions agree funding for investment recovery
Renewable energy
(BRUSSELS) - The EU Parliament and Council reached a political agreement Monday night on the InvestEU flagship investment programme for sustainable recovery of the European economy from the coronavirus pandemic.
The InvestEU programme, which supports investments and guarantees simplified access to financing, will foster strategic, sustainable and innovative investments and address market failures, sub-optimal investments and the investment gap in targeted sectors, for the period 2021-27.
The agreement was welcomed by the Commission. "This is a good agreement that opens the way to more financing for sustainable infrastructure, research and innovation, SMEs and skills," said Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni: "InvestEU will contribute to Europe's economic recovery and to the climate and digital transitions. Crucially, Member States will be able to use InvestEU as a tool to implement their Recovery and Resilience Plans."
The InvestEU Programme will provide the EU with crucial long-term funding, crowding in private investments in support of a sustainable recovery and helping build a greener, more digital and more resilient European economy.
The main elements of the compromise include:
- Four policy windows: Sustainable Infrastructure; Research, Innovation and Digitisation; SMEs; Social Investment and Skills.
- EU budgetary guarantee of EUR 26.2 billion, indicatively distributed across the four policy windows as follows:
- Sustainable Infrastructure window: EUR 9.9 billion
- Research, Innovation and Digitisation window: EUR 6.6 billion
- SME window: EUR 6.9 billion
- Social Investment and Skills window: EUR 2.8 billion
- Strategic investments will be possible under all four windows, in order to cater for the future needs of the European economy and to promote the EU's open strategic autonomy in key sectors.
- At least 30% of the investments under InvestEU will contribute to meeting Union objectives on climate action, confirming InvestEU as one of the main EU programmes contributing to the European Green Deal Investment Plan.
- InvestEU will provide for a dedicated Just Transition Scheme (Pillar 2 of the Just Transition Mechanism) to generate additional investments to the benefit of just transition regions with an approved territorial just transition plan.
- Member States will be able, on a voluntary basis, to implement part of their plans under the Recovery and Resilience Facility via the InvestEU programme and the InvestEU Advisory Hub.
- To ensure rapid deployment and local outreach, InvestEU will be implemented in partnership with the European Investment Bank and the European Investment Fund and multiple other implementing partners, including international financial institutions and national promotional banks and institutions.
Following the technical finalisation of the text reflecting the political agreement, the European Parliament and the Council will have to approve the text to allow the Regulation to enter into force and for InvestEU to become operational.