Meeting on 10 March, EU finance ministers agreed their negotiation stance on the Commission´s proposal setting up a European Fund for Strategic Investment, a crucial part of the EU´s flagship investment initiative, also known as the Juncker plan. The fund will be set up within the European Investment Bank. The EU will contribute with a €16 billion guarantee, the EIB will add another €5 billion. The EU´s guarantee will be covered by re-allocated EU funds amounting to 50% of the sum, that is €8 billion. These funds are to come from the Horizon 2020 fund and Connecting Europe Facility, plus from some unused EU budget margins. The overall €21 billion made available at the EIB are designed to mobilise 15-fold worth of private and public investment, thus amounting to some €315 billion investment offensive.

According to the Council´s position, the fund should be governed by a steering board, made of experts from the Commission and from the EIB whose task would be to set overall investment strategy of the fund deciding by consensus, and an investment committee, made of independent experts whose task would be to select the projects for funding from the EFSI deciding by a simple majority.

Based on this negotiating position, the Latvian presidency will engage the representatives of the European Parliament in discussions over the final text of the draft regulation.

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