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Juncker Plan reaches almost €410 billion in triggered investment across the EU

As of June 2019, the deals approved under the Juncker Plan amount to €75 billion in financing and are located in all 28 Member States. Some 952,000 start-ups and small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) are expected to benefit from improved access to finance.

Currently, the top five countries ranked in order of investment triggered relative to GDP are Greece, Estonia, Bulgaria, Portugal and Latvia.

The EIB has approved €55.2 billion worth of finance for infrastructure and innovation projects, which should generate €252.5 billion of additional investments, while the European Investment Fund (EIF), which is part of the EIB Group, has approved €19.8 billion worth of agreements with intermediary banks and funds to finance SMEs, which are expected to generate €155.9 billion of additional investments.

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European Commission Vice-President Jyrki Katainen, responsible for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness, said: “With these latest figures we have reached a new milestone, surpassing €400 billion in investment mobilised across the EU. This is a huge achievement and shows that by using a small amount of the EU budget as a guarantee, you can attract private investment for the public good. We are on track to reach our goal of €500 billion by the end of 2020, and the Commission will continue to mobilise investments under the InvestEU Programme from 2021 onwards.”

Based on the projects approved until July 2018, the Commission and the EIB estimate that the Juncker Plan has already supported 750,000 jobs and increased EU GDP by 0.6%. By 2020, the Juncker Plan is set to create 1.4 million jobs and increase EU GDP by 1.3%.

Background

The Investment Plan for Europe – the Juncker Plan – focuses on strengthening European investments to create jobs and growth. It does so by making smarter use of new and existing financial resources, removing obstacles to investment, and providing visibility and technical assistance to investment projects. The European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) is the central pillar of the Juncker Plan. It provides a first loss guarantee, allowing the EIB to invest in more, often riskier, projects.

On 6 June 2018, the Commission proposed for the next long-term EU budget 2021-2027, to create the InvestEU Programme, bringing EU budget financing in the form of loans and guarantees under one roof. The new programme will consist of the InvestEU Fund, the InvestEU Advisory Hub and the InvestEU Portal. After negotiations with the Member States, on 18 April the European Parliament gave its green light to the InvestEU Programme.

Compliments of the European Commission