EU investment plan

The European Parliament and EU governments in Council yesterday evening reached a provisional agreement on the draft European Fund for Strategic Investments ('Juncker plan'). Commenting on the outcome, Green economics spokesperson Bas Eickhout stated:

"While this deal is clearly not perfect, we have definitely improved the Juncker Plan and ensured it will have a greater focus on sustainable investments, which bring real added value. The Greens were instrumental in ensuring that projects in key sustainable development areas receive priority for EU support. We also successfully pushed for the introduction of a scoreboard for project selection that will steer investment funding towards where it can deliver the biggest impact on sustainable jobs and growth."

Greens/EFA budgetary spokesperson Ernest Maragall stated:

"Unfortunately, this investment plan will still rob from Peter to pay Paul. The Parliament was unsuccessful in its attempt to ensure that funding towards the Juncker Plan from the EU budget does not lead to the cannibalisation of core future-oriented EU programmes. However, we managed to reduce the damage, with €1 billion less now being diverted than originally foreseen from crucial EU programmes like Horizon 2020. Overall, we have strengthened the Juncker Plan and ensured it will have a much better chance of making a difference and stimulating sustainable investments."

The Greens/EFA group has outlined an alternative investment plan, which you can find at: http://tinyurl.com/GreenInvestmentPlan-pdf