Investment Plan for Europe.
Date: 2015-04-28
Institutions: European Investment Bank
Subjects: Europe, European Investment Bank, European Investment Fund, financing plan, innovation, investment project, loan, private investment, research and development, small and medium-sized enterprises, technical cooperation

Investment Plan for Europe

The Investment Plan for Europe aims to drive investment in strategic projects across the EU. 
The Plan will unlock investment of at least EUR 315bn over the next three years. 

Investment Plan for Europe

Tackling the investment gap

The  global  economic  and  financial  crisis  has 
hampered  essential  investment  in  infrastruc-
ture,  innovation  and  the  private  sector.  Cur-
rently,  investment  in  Europe  is  15%  below 
pre-crisis  levels.  Europe  must  remedy  this  in-
vestment  gap  to  recover  from  the  crisis  and 
strengthen its global competitiveness. 

Europe’s  investment  gap  points  to  a  market 
failure, a reduced capacity of investors to take 
risks.

Liquidity  is  available  but  many  projects  are 
unable  to  secure  adequate  funding.  Investor 
confidence  is  low  due  to  economic  volatility, 
along with regulatory and other uncertainties. 
As  a  result,  whilst  the  conditions  for  invest-
ment exist, the money is not finding its way to 
economically viable projects.

The European Commission has proposed  
addressing these issues in three ways:

Implement 
regulatory 
and structural 
reforms to remove 
bottlenecks 
and ensure an 
investment-friendly 
environment

Create the European  
Fund for Strategic 
Investments (EFSI) in 
partnership with the 
European Investment 
Bank, to address the 
market failure in risk-
taking which is holding 
back investment

Offer a single point 
of entry for technical 
assistance and 
advisory services on 
project preparation 
and implementation, 
use of financial 
instruments and 
capacity building

Investment Plan for Europe

The European Fund for Strategic Investments

16bnE

R
U

European Fund for  
Strategic Investments

5bnE

R
U

Investors

Strategic Projects 
for Europe

Investors

315bnE

R
U

Total Investment

The European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) aims to unlock investment by:

Addressing market gaps

Mobilising private capital

By taking on some of the risk, we can help 
increase promoters’ appetite to invest. The 
EIB will provide loans and other financial 
products that will be partly covered by an 
EU Budget guarantee.

As there is abundant liquidity in the 
market, sound projects and risk-absorbing 
financial products will be able to attract 
more funding, especially from private 
investors. 

EFSI will be integrated into the European Investment Bank Group and projects supported by EFSI 
will be subject to the normal EIB project cycle and governance.

Investment Plan for Europe

Key Sectors

With EFSI support, the EIB Group will provide funding for economically viable projects where it 
adds value, including projects with a higher risk profile than ordinary EIB activities. It will focus 
on sectors of key importance where it has proven expertise and the capacity to deliver a positive 
impact on the European economy, including:

Strategic infrastructure, including 
digital, transport and energy

Education and training, research, 
development and innovation

Expansion of renewable energy 
and resource efficiency

Support for smaller businesses 
and midcap companies*

Environmental, urban 
development and social projects

Instruments

*both delivered via the EIB and EIF

Loans

Guarantees

Credit enhancement products to 
stimulate capital market financing

Equity-type products, including those 
taking technology, demand  
or regulatory risk

Who can apply?

•  Companies of all sizes, including small and medium-sized enterprises  
(with up to 250 employees) and midcaps (with up to 3 000 employees)
•  Utilities
•  Public sector entities
•  National promotional banks or other banks to deliver intermediated lending
•  Bespoke investment platforms

Investment Plan for Europe

To benefit from EFSI support, projects need to be:

Commercially sound, economically and 
technically viable

Contributing to EU objectives and to 
sustainable growth and employment

Mature enough to be bankable

Priced in a manner commensurate  
with the risk taken

Functioning

All EFSI operations will be implemented with-
in  existing  EIB  Group  (EIB  and  EIF)  structures 
and will be subject to standard due diligence 
and  approval  by  the  EIB’s  governing  bodies. 
This  will  allow  the  Bank  to  start  operations 
rapidly  and  will  enable  projects  to  benefit 
from EIB expertise and experience. 

When will it start to deliver?

EFSI  will  be  launched  as  soon  as  the  legisla-
tive  process  for  adoption  of  the  EU  Regula-
tion  which  establishes  it  is  complete.  This  is 
currently expected by mid-2015. In the mean-
time,  the  EIB  will  use  existing  capital  to  start 
pre-financing operations.  

Investment Plan for Europe

A strategic partnership between the 
EIB and the European Commission

The European Fund for Strategic Investments is a strategic 
partnership between the European Commission and the EIB, 
deployed by the Group (EIB and EIF), to address market failure 
by helping reduce the risk inherent in projects to encourage 
further investment. 

The EIB will contribute EUR 5bn to the new initiative, alongside 
a EUR 16bn guarantee from the EU budget. This will allow EFSI 
to unlock additional investment of at least EUR 315bn over the 
next three years. 

Expected Impact  

According to European 
Commission estimates, 
taken as a whole the 
proposed measures 
could add EUR 330 – 
410bn to the EU’s GDP 
over the next three 
years and create up to 
1.3 million new jobs. 

Investment Plan for Europe

European Investment Advisory Hub

Services include:

The  European  Investment  Advisory  Hub  (EIAH)  will  be  set  up 
as a joint initiative of the European Commission and the EIB to 
help strengthen and accelerate investment. It will provide bet-
ter  coordinated  guidance  on  the  preparation  of  projects  and 
on how these can best gain access to finance. Offering a single 
point of entry to all existing sources for investment advice, the 
EIAH  will  bring  together  specialist  advice  currently  delivered 
under a range of initiatives.

Project preparation and 
implementation

Use of financial 
instruments

Capacity building

Support for PPP design

Financial structuring in the 
innovation space

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