President Markkula: Investment Plan for Europe has made a promising start but more work to be done

" The Investment Plan for Europe has made a promising start in giving the economy a lift especially by supporting many SMEs. But more needs to be done to tackle regional disparity by targeting EU cities and regions that suffer the widest gap in investment " the President of the European Committee of the Regions, Markku Markkula said during a conference, organised by the European Parliament's intergroup on long term investment on 28 June.

Since its very inception, the CoR has given its full backing to the Investment Plan - driven by the European Fund for Strategic Investment where the European Investment Bank (EIB i) is injecting €315bn to co-finance projects across Europe. As part of its efforts the CoR has trumpeted synergies with the EU's Cohesion Policy budget and has promoted the Plan among local and regional authorities in the European Union, in cooperation with the EIB.

The Plan is going "in the right direction" but more was needed to ensure a better geographical balance. "There are claims that projects funded by EFSI are additional investments because they are riskier than those they normally finance. That's good but is not enough. We need data and more information so we can identify projects that would not have been financed without EFSI support." said President Markkula.

Establishing investment platforms to encourage take-up of the EFSI among businesses and regions, especially macro-regions, was also debated. "We, at local and regional level are at the ready to increase awareness. We must be further engaged in identifying projects and pointing out bottlenecks to make the Investment Plan work. We must be involved in the running and launch of Investment Platforms in Europe ".

As part of its efforts to relaunch investment, President Markkula announced that more than 700 hundreds of mayors and presidents of regions, as well as business and academia representatives, will gather in Bratislava on 8-9 July for the 7th European Summit of Regions and Cities entitled "Invest and Connect". Several EU Commissioners will take the floor as well as our representatives from the EIB. The Summit will allow for a true bottom-up discussion, starting with the needs and identifying solutions on the ground, while considering how best to shape policy and budgets. A Declaration, complemented by a Policy Action Plan on Investments, will be adopted setting a roadmap on how to increase investment in Europe's cities and regions.