(5)

Article 7 is amended as follows: (a) the following paragraph is inserted: ‘1a. All institutions and bodies involved in EFSI governing structures shall endeavour to ensure gender balance in relevant EFSI governing bodies.’; (b) in paragraph 3, the first and second subparagraphs are replaced by the following: ‘3. The Steering Board shall comprise five members: three appointed by the Commission, one by the EIB and one expert appointed as a non-voting member by the European Parliament. That expert shall not seek or take instructions from Union institutions, bodies, offices or agencies, from any Member State government or from any other public or private body, and shall act in full independence. The expert shall perform his or her duties impartially and in the interest of the EFSI. The Steering Board shall elect a Chairperson from among its voting members for a fixed term of three years, renewable once. The Steering Board shall discuss and take the utmost possible account of the positions of all members. If the members cannot converge in their position, the Steering Board shall take its decisions by unanimous vote among its voting members. The minutes of Steering Board meetings shall provide a substantive account of the positions of all members. The detailed minutes of Steering Board meetings shall be published as soon as they have been approved by the Steering Board. The European Parliament shall be immediately notified of their publication.’; (c) in paragraph 5, the second subparagraph is replaced by the following: ‘The Managing Director shall be assisted by a deputy managing director. The Managing Director and the Deputy Managing Director shall participate in the meetings of the Steering Board as observers. The Managing Director shall report every quarter on the activities of the EFSI to the Steering Board.’; (d) in paragraph 8, the third subparagraph is amended as follows: (i) point (e) is replaced by the following: ‘(e) climate action, environmental protection and management;’; (ii) the following point is added: ‘(l) sustainable agriculture, forestry, fishery, aquaculture and other elements of the wider bioeconomy.’; (e) in paragraph 10, the second sentence is replaced by the following: ‘Each member of the Investment Committee shall communicate without delay to the Steering Board, the Managing Director and the Deputy Managing Director all information needed to check, on an ongoing basis, the absence of any conflict of interest.’; (f) in paragraph 11, the following sentence is added: ‘The Managing Director shall be responsible for informing the Steering Board of any such breach that comes to his or her knowledge and be responsible for proposing and following up on appropriate action. The Managing Director shall exercise his or her duty of care regarding potential conflicts of interest of any member of the Investment Committee.’; (g) paragraph 12 is amended as follows: (i) in the second subparagraph, the second sentence is replaced by the following: ‘Decisions approving the use of the EU guarantee shall be public and accessible, and shall include the rationale for the decision, with particular focus on compliance with the additionality criterion. They shall also refer to the global assessment stemming from the scoreboard of indicators referred to in paragraph 14. The publication shall not contain commercially sensitive information. In reaching its decision, the Investment Committee shall be supported by the documentation provided by the EIB. The scoreboard, which is a tool for the Investment Committee to prioritise the use of the EU guarantee for operations that display higher scores and added value, shall be publicly available after the signature of a project. The publication shall not contain commercially sensitive information. Commercially sensitive parts of the decisions of the Investment Committee shall be forwarded by the EIB to the European Parliament upon request subject to strict confidentiality requirements.’; (ii) the third subparagraph is replaced by the following: ‘Twice a year, the EIB shall submit to the European Parliament, to the Council and to the Commission a list of all decisions of the Investment Committee as well as the scoreboards relating to all those decisions. That submission shall be subject to strict confidentiality requirements.’; (h) paragraph 14 is replaced by the following: ‘14. The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 23(1) to (3) and (5) to supplement this Regulation by establishing a scoreboard of indicators to be used by the Investment Committee to ensure an independent and transparent assessment of the potential and actual use of the EU guarantee. Such delegated acts shall be prepared in close dialogue with the EIB. The Steering Board shall, as part of the strategic orientation of the EFSI, establish a minimum score for each pillar in the scoreboard with a view to enhancing the assessment of projects. The Steering Board may, upon request from the EIB, allow the Investment Committee to examine a project whose score in any of the pillars is below the minimum score when the global assessment contained in the scoreboard concludes that the operation related to that project would either address a significant market failure or present a high level of additionality.’;