The European Commission, in partnership with the European Investment Bank (EIB), is launching fi-compass, a new advisory service on financial instruments for the European Structural and Investment Funds. This service is part of the “one stop shop” advisory hub, to be launched as an important part of the EU Investment Plan.
The work to deliver the Investment Plan is moving fast. Just 50 days after President Juncker announced plans for an EU investment offensive, and the Commission has already launched a legislative proposal for the European Fund for Strategic Investments – to mobilise at least EUR 315 billion in private and public investment across the European Union. With the launch of fi-compass, the Commission and EIB are now moving quickly to deliver on the second pillar of the Investment Plan to make actual investment happen in the economy. This second pillar aims at enhancing technical assistance (with an advisory hub to provide all the necessary financial and technical support to public and private promoters) and providing transparency to investors. A transparent project pipeline of viable projects will be launched with the EIB later this year.
“I welcome the launch of the fi-compass to pool our joint know-how in order to yield the best impact on the ground. Excellent examples serve as inspiration for other countries, in particular those struggling to draw EU funding and ensure its efficient use. I encourage Member States to double the amount of investments channelled through financial instruments in the new programming period,” Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Creţu said.
This platform will be an important enabler for Member States to make use of financial instruments under the European Structural and Investment Funds, as Cohesion policy will play a central part in reaching the objectives of the Investment Plan, in terms of strategic and fruitful investments, job creation and sustainable growth.
The Investment Plan set as target to double the use of financial instruments in 2014-2020; by using them, the return of each euro invested in the Member States will be increased. Fi-compass, set up by the European Commission and the EIB, is intended to better equip and strengthen the expertise of the managing authorities and stakeholders working with these financial instruments.
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