Commission welcomes political agreement on InvestEU

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission.

The Commission welcomes the political agreement reached between the European Parliament and EU Member States in the Council on the InvestEU Regulation. The political agreement, pending the final approval of the legal texts by the European Parliament Plenary and the Council, lays the ground for a successful and sustainable recovery of the European economy from the coronavirus pandemic in the long run.

Paolo Gentiloni, Commissioner for Economy, said: “This is a good agreement that opens the way to more financing for sustainable infrastructure, research and innovation, SMEs and skills. InvestEU will contribute to Europe’s economic recovery and to the climate and digital transitions. Crucially, Member States will be able to use InvestEU as a tool to implement their Recovery and Resilience Plans.”

The InvestEU Programme will provide the EU with crucial long-term funding, crowding in private investments in support of a sustainable recovery and helping build a greener, more digital and more resilient European economy.

The main elements of today’s compromise include:

• Four policy windows: Sustainable Infrastructure; Research, Innovation and Digitisation; SMEs; Social Investment and Skills.
• EU budgetary guarantee of EUR 26.2 billion, indicatively distributed across the four policy windows as follows:
  1. Sustainable Infrastructure window: EUR 9.9 billion
  2. Research, Innovation and Digitisation window: EUR 6.6 billion
  3. SME window: EUR 6.9 billion
  4. Social Investment and Skills window: EUR 2.8 billion
• Strategic investments will be possible under all four windows, in order to cater for the future needs of the European economy and to promote the EU’s open strategic autonomy in key sectors.
• At least 30% of the investments under InvestEU will contribute to meeting Union objectives on climate action, confirming InvestEU as one of the main EU programmes contributing to the European Green Deal Investment Plan.
• InvestEU will provide for a dedicated Just Transition Scheme (Pillar 2 of the Just Transition Mechanism) to generate additional investments to the benefit of just transition regions with an approved territorial just transition plan.
• Member States will be able, on a voluntary basis, to implement part of their plans under the Recovery and Resilience Facility via the InvestEU programme and the InvestEU Advisory Hub.
• To ensure rapid deployment and local outreach, InvestEU will be implemented in partnership with the European Investment Bank and the European Investment Fund and multiple other implementing partners, including international financial institutions and national promotional banks and institutions.

Next steps

Following the technical finalisation of the text reflecting the political agreement, the European Parliament and the Council will have to approve the text to allow the Regulation to enter into force and for InvestEU to become operational. 

On 10 November 2020, a political agreement was reached between the European Parliament, EU Member States in the Council as well as the Commission on the next long-term EU budget and NextGenerationEU. As a next step, the legal adoption of the MFF Regulation, the NextGenerationEU regulation along with the amendment of the Own Resources Decision is now urgently needed within their respective roles and procedures. 

Once adopted, the EU’s long-term budget, coupled with the NextGenerationEU initiative, which is a temporary instrument designed to drive the recovery of Europe, will be the largest stimulus package ever financed through the EU budget. A total of €1.8 trillion will help rebuild a post-COVID-19 Europe. It will be a greener, more digital and more resilient Europe.

Background

InvestEU is the EU’s proposed flagship investment programme to kick-start the European economy. It is well-placed to provide long-term funding and to support Union policies in the recovery from a deep economic and social crisis. The InvestEU Programme builds on the success of the Investment Plan for Europe and the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI).

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