Ambroise Fayolle, Vice-President of the European Investment Bank (EIB), and Sébastien Bourget, Managing Partner of Quaero Capital, announced in Strasbourg the EIB’s EUR 40m equity participation in Quaero European Infrastructure Fund. This investment is covered by the guarantee of the EU budget under the Investment Plan for Europe, more commonly known as the Juncker Plan.

The participation of the EIB – a European benchmark financier – will be vital to enable Quaero European Infrastructure Fund to reach a scale of EUR 250m, thereby helping to attract other investors. Quaero European Infrastructure Fund provides equity financing for projects in the fields of social infrastructure, transport, telecoms, energy and public or private amenities. The Fund invests in Europe, where its core target is the infrastructure project financing market, translating into small to medium-scale operations.

The EIB published its first report “Evaluation of the functioning of the European Fund for Strategic Investments” today. The report was carried out by the EIB’s Operations Evaluation Division, a unit which draws up evaluation reports about the EIB’s work independently from EIB management. The report was drawn up as required by the EFSI Regulation. It covers the period from September 2014 to June 2016 and focuses on the portfolio of operations, the governance and organisational structures of the initiative, as well as project procedures and guidelines.

According to this report, the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) is on track to mobilise private capital which is crucial to strengthen Europe’s competitiveness. Ambroise Fayolle, Vice President at the European Investment Bank (EIB) commented: “This independent evaluation report confirms that EFSI is on track to deliver on its objective, under the Investment Plan for Europe, to mobilise EUR 315 billion in investments by 2018. EFSI has also demonstrated that it is an effective way to crowd in investors. So far over 60% of total investment potentially mobilised by EFSI comes from the private sector and 85% of projects supported by the innovation and infrastructure window have been done with new clients. This is crucial to relaunch investment and put money to work in making Europe competitive globally.”

See report

Le 15 juin 2016, se sont tenues les Assises européennes du long terme, organisées par Confrontations Europe, partenaire de l’Intergroupe, en présence notamment de Sandro Gozi, Secrétaire d’Etat italien aux affaires européennes, Jyrki Katainen, Vice-Président de la Commission européenne des Affaires économiques et monétaires de l’euro, Laurent Zylberberg, Directeur des relations institutionnelles et de la coopération européenne et internationale du Groupe Caisse des Dépôts et Edoardo Reviglio, Economiste en chef de la Cassa Depositi e Prestiti.

Ces Assises étaient rythmées par trois table-rondes :

– Instabilité globale et européenne : de quelle politique macroéconomique l’Europe a-t-elle besoin ?

– La parole aux acteurs financiers : synergies et complémentarités

– Leçons à tirer du Plan Juncker et perspectives

Les Actes issus de ces Assises européennes du long terme ont été publiés et sont disponibles sur ce lien.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has signed a subscription agreement with Sustainable Sàrl, a subsidiary of SUSI Partners AG (SUSI), putting into effect the EIB’s investment commitment of up to 62 million euro in the SUSI Renewable Energy Fund II (SUSI RE II). The Investment is guaranteed under the European Fund for Strategic Investments.

The portfolio of SUSI’s second renewable energy fund currently comprises 13 wind and solar farms in Germany, France, United Kingdom, Portugal and Italy, delivering a total output of approximately 170 MW of clean energy. The fund is diversified technically as well as geographically, with projects throughout the EU.

There is an urgent need to rebalance policy in order to shift to a more robust and sustainable global expansion and address accumulated vulnerabilities, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) writes in its 86th Annual Report, calling for prudential, fiscal and structural policies to play a greater role.

“We need policies that we will not once again regret when the future becomes today,” the BIS says in the report, released today, which describes a broad-based economic realignment as financial cycles mature, commodity prices fall, the dollar strengthens and global liquidity starts to tighten.

In its flagship economic report, the BIS argues that growth rates are not far from historical averages. Still, it identifies a risky combination of unusually low productivity growth, historically high global debt and shrinking room for policy manoeuvre, which leaves the global economy highly exposed, not least to shocks and political risks.

The recommended policy rebalancing should be incorporated into a long-term framework with a stronger focus on preventing costly financial boom-bust cycles, the BIS says. Prudential, fiscal and structural policies need to work alongside monetary policy, with a clear delineation of responsibilities.

The structure of taxes and subsidies could be adjusted to remove the bias towards debt accumulation, for example by eliminating the tax advantage of debt over equity, and the quality of public spending could be improved by focusing more on investment. Throughout this process, prudently assessing fiscal space and maintaining sound public finances are key.