The European Commission Vice-President for Jobs, Growth, Investment & Competitiveness, Jyrki Katainen hold a speech at the European Policy Center Breakfast Policy Meeting about the measures the Commission would propose to restart growth in the European Union. He talked about the lack of investment Europe faces at the moment and added that this is a problem the decision-makers have to solve. When he mentioned the reasons of this investment gap, the list included some points that are not part of the Commission’s competence, like the structural reforms of member states. On the other hand he highlighted those areas where the Commission can do the most to boost growth.
(Source: @eunewsit)
Mr Katainen added that the ‘uncomplete Single Market’ is one of the reasons why we are lagging behind the investment levels we eager to reach. Therefore he stated that by completing the Digital Single Market, the Energy Union and the Capital Market Union the Juncker Commission will be remembered as a ‘Single Market Commission’. For boosting growth we also have to change our mindset, because the European Union was forced to be in crisis management mode during the last 7 years.
Mr Katainen was also talking about the European Fund for Strategic Investments, which is currently at the European Parliament after the Council has agreed on the ‘general rule’ of it. The EFSI governance will be set up by two bodies, the Steering Committee and the Investment Committee. The latter will be composed by 7-8 independent experts from the market without political backgrounds. Regarding the leverage ratio he mentioned that according to earlier experiences the more SMEs will participate the bigger the ratio will be. Mr Katainen explained that the EFSI will cover two main areas: the SME financing and higher risk infrastructure investments. He underlined that the EFSI will be not another funding opportunity for the governments but will be set up more like the European Investment Banks, thus ‘anyone can apply for it’.