European Union

This study examines the state of 'Pooling and Sharing' (P&S) at EU and Member State (MS) level. Instead of the demanded change in mindset, we witness another episode in the traditional struggle to make classic defence cooperation work. The marginal results of P&S are not yet adequate to the size of problems. The cooperation initiative misses definitions of success, useful models of cooperation and a permanent monitoring of opportunities and capabilities. MS make progress at a snail’s pace: many projects kicked off in the first phase of P&S are still in their early stages and thus do not deliver capabilities. At the same time, Member States paralyse efforts of the EDA. NATO has not performed much better. This underlines that the core of the problem remains the sovereignty question within Member States. The developments have to be seen against the simultaneous evolution of the European defence landscape: budgets and capabilities have been cut further. Member States have lost time and money but most importantly, they have also lost many options to safeguard capabilities through pooling or sharing. The European Parliament should encourage first, a new politico-military flagship project around which defence can be organised, second, an efficiency perspective towards spending and procuring capabilities; third, the discussion on the future of sovereignty in defence; and fourth, a European Defence Review that offers a sober assessment of the current and future European defence landscape, including the opportunities for cooperation. This would enable a public debate on Europe with or without defence.
Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

Public hearing "The implementation of the Solidarity Clause"
Location : Altiero Spinelli, room 1E-2, European Parliament
Poster
Poster
Programme
Draft programme
Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

The Permanent Representatives Committee (Coreper) on 9 June 2015 approved, on behalf of the Council, a compromise agreement on a European fund for strategic investments (EFSI) aimed at stimulating the economy.

The compromise reached with the European Parliament on 28 May 2015 paves the way for new investments to begin in mid-2015.

"In the current economic context, there is a clear need to boost investment," said Jānis Reirs, minister for finance of Latvia and president of the Council. "With an enhanced risk-bearing capacity, this new fund will create the conditions needed for the private sector to become involved."

The EFSI is intended to stimulate participation by private investors in a broad range of new investment projects. By taking on part of the risk through a first-loss liability, it is expected to achieve an overall multiplier effect of 1:15 in real investment. Such leverage will eventually allow more than €300bn of additional investment to be mobilised during a three-year investment period.

The fund will be built on €16 billion in guarantees from the EU budget and €5 billion from the European Investment Bank. To facilitate the payment of potential guarantee calls, a guarantee fund will be established so as to gradually reach €8 billion (i.e. 50% of total EU guarantee obligations).

A broad range of projects

The EFSI will be established within the EIB by an agreement between the EIB and the Commission. It will operate for an initial investment period of four years.

The fund will support projects in a broad range of areas, including transport, energy and broadband infrastructure, education, health, research and risk finance for SMEs. It will target socially and economically viable projects without any sector-specific or regional pre-allocation, in particular to address market failures. The EFSI will complement and be additional to ongoing EU programmes and traditional EIB activities.

Lifetime of the fund

Before the end of the initial investment period, the Commission will submit an independent evaluation which will assess whether the EFSI has achieved the objectives of the regulation. Based on the conclusions of its report, the Commission will, as appropriate, present a proposal to either set a new investment period, restructure the fund, or terminate the EFSI.

Funding

EU funding will come from redeploying grants from the Connecting Europe facility (transport, energy and digital networks) and the Horizon 2020 programme (research and innovation), as well as unused margins in the EU's annual budget. As part of the deal, the Council and the Parliament agreed to increase the share of financing coming from unused margins, in comparison with what the Commission proposed, in order to reduce contributions from Horizon 2020 and the Connecting Europe facility (CEF).

The agreement reached on funding is as follows:

• Redeployment will amount to €5bn, of which €2.8bn from the CEF and €2.2bn from Horizon 2020;
• Funding from unused margins will amount to €3bn over the 2016-20 period. The source of this financing includes €543 million and €457 million specifically earmarked from the global margin for commitments for the 2014 and 2015 budgets respectively.
• Payments could be extended until 2023 to provision the EFSI guarantee fund.

Furthermore, it was agreed that €500 million of CEF-transport financial instruments will be redeployed for CEF-transport grants.

Governance of the fund

The EFSI regulation provides for a two-tier governance structure:

• A steering board will set the overall strategy, investment policy and risk profile of the fund. To ensure an impartial steering board and avoid political influence over the selection of projects, the board members will come from the Commission and the EIB only. Their numbers will reflect the institutions' size of contributions in the form of cash or guarantees. The steering board will take decisions by consensus. It will regularly consult stakeholders.
• An independent investment committee will select projects to receive EFSI support. Accountable to the steering board, it will consist of eight independent experts and a managing director. The managing director will be responsible for the day-to-day management of the EFSI and the preparation and chairing of meetings of the investment committee. The committee will take decisions by simple majority. Any project supported by the EFSI will require approval by the EIB.

Contributions to the fund

Member states can contribute to the EFSI in guarantees or cash, while third parties can contribute in cash. However, contributions will not entail any influence over the fund's governance.  

Third parties, including member states' national promotional banks, will be able to co-finance projects together with the EFSI, either on a project-by-project basis or through investment platforms.

Identifying new projects

The regulation will set up a "European investment advisory hub" to provide advisory support for the identification, preparation and development of projects across the EU. It will also establish a "European investment project portal" to improve investors' knowledge of existing and future projects. 

Adopting the regulation

The agreement with the Parliament was reached during a trilogue meeting in Brussels on 27 and 28 May, while the final trilogue endorsement took place on 4 June. Council and Parliament representatives met in nine trilogues since 23 April 2015, having agreed their respective negotiating stances in March and April.

The EFSI regulation will now be submitted to the European Parliament for a vote at first reading, expected on 24 June, and to the Council for final adoption. Signature of the regulation is foreseen before the end of June, which will allow it to enter into force at the beginning of July 2015. The first EFSI operations could be approved as early as mid-September.

Final compromise text of the EFSI regulation

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Informal Meeting of Ministers responsible for Cohesion policy, territorial cohesion and urban matters takes place on 9 and 10 June, to discuss the implementation of reformed cohesion policy in practice, a wider use of financial instruments of cohesion policy and strengthening the administrative capacity.

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As work on a new European Security Strategy begins, this briefing examines the impact of changes in the security environment of Europe. It argues in favour of an ambitious new security strategy which, twelve years after the adoption of the 2003 European Security Strategy, is most needed in a degraded security environment. It looks back at the process and content of that document and identifies its successes environment since 2003. Mapping those changes, the report points at new threats and challenges and the changing nature of conflict. It also focuses on the and North Africa, which have challenged the assessment that Europe is not facing threats on its borders. The briefing presents an assessment of the changes in the institutional and political architecture of the EU in the post-Lisbon context, which is significantly different from the 2003 institutional environment. It emphasises the multiple tools the EU is using to develop its security policy. Finally, the briefing provides some recommendations for the process and the substance of the starting strategic review and future strategy.
Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

As work on a new European Security Strategy begins, this briefing examines the impact of changes in the security environment of Europe. It argues in favour of an ambitious new security strategy which, twelve years after the adoption of the 2003 European Security Strategy, is most needed in a degraded security environment. It looks back at the process and content of that document and identifies its successes environment since 2003. Mapping those changes, the report points at new threats and challenges and the changing nature of conflict. It also focuses on the and North Africa, which have challenged the assessment that Europe is not facing threats on its borders. The briefing presents an assessment of the changes in the institutional and political architecture of the EU in the post-Lisbon context, which is significantly different from the 2003 institutional environment. It emphasises the multiple tools the EU is using to develop its security policy. Finally, the briefing provides some recommendations for the process and the substance of the starting strategic review and future strategy.
Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

Plenary sessions : It will be 30 years this Friday since Spain and Portugal signed their EU accession treaties and so rejoined the EU family of democratic nations, noted President Schulz in his opening remarks. Not all the hopes of this historic moment were met, but both countries won their struggle against regressive forces and achieved stability. The EU promises of strength through democracy, and welfare for the many, not just wealth for the few, are still there, he added.

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

Plenary sessions : It will be 30 years this Friday since Spain and Portugal signed their EU accession treaties and so rejoined the EU family of democratic nations, noted President Schulz in his opening remarks. Not all the hopes of this historic moment were met, but both countries won their struggle against regressive forces and achieved stability. The EU promises of strength through democracy, and welfare for the many, not just wealth for the few, are still there, he added.

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

Plenary sessions : Martin Schulz has paid to tribute to Portugal and Spain on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the two countries signing the EU accession treaty this Friday. "This was a major step in European history," the president of the European Parliament said in his opening remarks of the 8-11 June plenary session in Strasbourg. At the time the EU was still known as the European Economic Community and after the accession of Portugal and Spain consisted of 12 member states.

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

Plenary sessions : Martin Schulz has paid to tribute to Portugal and Spain on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the two countries signing the EU accession treaty this Friday. "This was a major step in European history," the president of the European Parliament said in his opening remarks of the 8-11 June plenary session in Strasbourg. At the time the EU was still known as the European Economic Community and after the accession of Portugal and Spain consisted of 12 member states.

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

Plenary sessions : December's climate change conference in Paris aims to come up with an international agreement to help limit global warming after 2020, but it is far from the first one. MEPs are this week voting on a recommendation to ensure that the Doha climate agreement, setting targets for emissions reductions up to 2020, is still ratified by the end of the year. Read on to find out more about the first climate change agreements and the efforts to come up with a new global deal to help fight global warming.

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP