Economy
(Strasbourg) In Strasbourg today, the European Parliament gives the green lights to the adoption of the legislation that extends the EU Strategic Investment Fund. Jyrki Katainen, EU Commissioner in charge of employment, growth and investments, states: “The Investment Plan has given real benefits to businesses all over Europe, but we want to do more. We have followed up on the comments received about the operation of the Fund and have made a few improvements. We mean to make the Fund’s investment decisions even more transparent and give more technical support on a local scale”. The Fund’s term will be extended to the end of 2020, and its investment goal “will be increased to 500 billion euros”. According to Katainen, who is in Strasbourg, the Fund “already helped create 300 thousand jobs”. The president of the European Investment Bank, Werner Hoyer, adds: “The first time we introduced it, the Fund was met with some scepticism. In the last two and half years, we have proven that it has been effective: this initiative has supported thousands of businesses and created hundreds of thousands of jobs”. In addition to being extended from the mid-2018 to the end of 2020 and the 315 billion euros’ investment goal having been increased to at least 500 billion euros, according to the EU Commission, the new Fund will be like this: more transparent, a higher proportion of eligible projects, more focussed on small-scale projects, more technical support on a local scale.
