Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-07-04-Speech-3-441-000"
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"en.20120704.28.3-441-000"2
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"Mr President, it is a great pleasure and honour for me to participate in this debate on project bonds. Allow me first of all to thank Parliament for its support of this initiative, and in particular the rapporteur, Mr Göran Färm, for his constructive and pragmatic approach which has hopefully helped to reach a compromise acceptable to all.
As we all know, there will be huge investment needs all over Europe in the coming years, so the test phase of the project bond initiative comes not a moment too soon. We are faced with an urgent need to restart our economies, to stop the rise in unemployment, in order to preserve the EU’s role and position in the world, and the project bond initiative will be one more element among others in our toolbox to raise private money on the financial markets. It is not an alternative to the instruments in our toolbox; it is an addition to them.
At last week’s summit, leaders committed to an ambitious Growth and Jobs Compact. Long-term investment will be a crucial component of this plan. Importantly for the taxpayer, the project bond initiative does not impose an additional burden on domestic budgets, sovereign debt or contingent liabilities. On the contrary, it relies on a small EU budget contribution redirected from existing programmes, coupled with an EIB guarantee or loan. Together, these two elements will improve the quality of debt raised by project promoters, allow institutional investors to buy this debt, and support considerable investment throughout Europe.
The multiplier effect can be significant. With a EUR 230 million guarantee from the EU budget and an EIB contribution, we will be able to support up to EUR 4.3 billion of investment in this pilot phase. This is the rationale for using public money as risk capital in times of crisis. A careful scaling of the EU guarantee and EIB loan element will allow for a more efficient use of EU budgetary resources. The project bond initiative is therefore another fine example of synergy between the EIB and the Commission and I thank Commissioner Rehn for his excellent cooperation.
As the EIB has traditionally worked on three pillars – lending, blending and advising – we are optimistic that we can offer our help and experience to make this pilot phase a success, and it must become a success. Building on its experience and developing joint instruments, the EIB has been working on identifying projects suitable for the start-up period. The first pilot projects will most likely be situated in some of the more advanced project-financed markets of the EU, and will focus on a handful of clearly bankable deals where relatively small amounts of public money can help underpin relatively large volumes of investment. The clear objective, however, is to support access to long-term finance for infrastructure throughout Europe.
Investment in energy networks to promote energy security, in digital access, and in sustainable transfer infrastructure is crucial for the success of the Europe 2020 strategy and the continent’s long-term growth prospects. I hope that project bonds will increase appetite for private-sector financing of vital projects."@en1
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