Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-07-06-Speech-3-435"
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"en.20050706.32.3-435"2
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"Mr President, Mrs Zimmer, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to start by congratulating Mrs Zimmer on her report on the impact of the European Investment Bank’s activities in developing countries. We think that this report raises many very important issues, and I will not pretend that I do not largely agree with their analysis.
Before commenting in more detail on the report itself, let me first give my impressions of the situation regarding the implementation of the investment facility. Some of you will know that I wrote to Mr Maystadt in February this year, expressing concerns about the Cotonou Investment Facility. I am happy to say that the situation has improved significantly since then. One of the improvements that I have noticed is a greater willingness to take the risks inherent in investment in developing countries; another is the systematic application of a new framework seeking to measure the impact of operations on development. We are talking to the EIB about simplifying the decision-making structure for the facility’s projects. In short, we think that the investment facility is on the right track in the ACP region.
I would now like to make five comments on the report, starting with services of general interest. We entirely agree that it is necessary to improve the provision of services of general interest in developing countries, for example in the water and transport sectors. As many of these projects are not viable in commercial terms, they obviously require an element of subsidy. Consequently, we have proposed to the Member States that, for the next budgetary period, we should double the interest subsidy package that accompanies the investment facility in the ACP countries, and increase it to EUR 400 million.
With regard to cooperation between the EIB and the Commission, we recognise that even more needs to be done to improve the infrastructure in developing countries. The Commission is preparing a communication on Africa, as you know. This communication will propose a considerable increase in the availability of regional and transcontinental infrastructure. This objective will require substantial efforts to be made to improve coordination between the EIB and the Commission, as well as with other financial bodies and institutions. In this context, a group of officials from the EIB and the Commission is currently analysing how our two institutions could improve cooperation in the future. Clearly, it will also be important to cooperate with other lenders, as I have just said.
With regard to micro-lending, we fully support the reference to micro-lending in the report. As the United Nations has declared 2005 to be the International Year of Microcredit, this subject is a political priority. In this regard, the Commission recently decided to make Commission aid for micro-lending considerably more professional. An important pillar of this new approach is to step up cooperation with those banks that specialise in development, particularly the EIB, with regard to the provision of microcredit. Consequently, the Commission strongly supports the European Parliament’s call to increase the EIB’s microcredit aid.
Turning to the development indicators, here too we recognise that the EIB needs to adopt the Commission’s key indicators to assess the results of its operations and to set up an independent evaluation unit.
Finally, with regard to the review of the external lending mandates, we recently proposed, at a meeting between the Commissioner for External Relations and President Maystadt, to increase the development aspect of the EIB’s external activities, outside the ACP region. The review of the external lending mandates, which the EIB and the Commission are now beginning, provides the opportunity to do so.
I should not like to finish without paying tribute to President Maystadt and his team, who, certainly during all our meetings and whenever we have been in contact, have shown themselves to be very open-minded. Within the EIB Presidency, at any rate, there is clearly a considerable openness to development and if President Maystadt cannot go any further in terms of effectiveness, it is partly because, unfortunately, there are rules and his goodwill has its limits. That said, he is someone who is very open to reform. He is even studying the options for reforming the EIB, to make it more sensitive to development issues and to ensure that, within the decision-making bodies, the development aspect is taken more broadly into account, which is clearly difficult as things currently stand and given the composition of the decision-making bodies."@en1
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