False start for the juncker recovery proposals

Abstract

The ‘Juncker Plan’ of November 2014 proposes to define investment criteria for a European Fund for Strategic Investments. This displaces that such investments are within the statutory remit of the EIF – the European Investment Fund – which is part of the European Investment Bank Group and, like the EIB, can issue bonds that do not count on national debt. The BRICS are ready to invest in € bonds to promote European recovery since this is to mutual advantage in sustaining their trade. Rating agencies, pension funds and sovereign wealth funds want a European recovery. Nor are new investment criteria needed. They already were widely defined for the EIB Group by the 1994 Essen Council and in the 1997 Amsterdam Special Action Programme. A host of investment projects that already have planning approval can be jointly EIB-EIF financed and could achieve a Roosevelt style New Deal for Europe.