Activities of Antanas GUOGA related to 2016/2064(INI)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on the implementation of the European Fund for Strategic Investments
Amendments (14)
Amendment 5 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Notes that, having been fully operational for less than a year, the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) has kicked off successfully, delivering some initial concrete results and acting as a positive instrument to overcome the lack of investment in Europe through coordinated action; stresses, however, that the pace needs to be accelerated and its initial results need to improve significantly in the near future, particularly in those Member States in which the financing provided by EFSI was particularly low, in order for the instrument to achieve its objectives fully;
Amendment 11 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Notes that EFSI has started functioning successfully, already delivering concrete results in some Member States and therefore, acting as a positive instrument to overcome the lack of investment and to fight unemployment in Europe through coordinated action;
Amendment 17 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. UrgStresses that EFSI must ensure greater additionality for its projects in relation to normal EIB activities; underlines the fact that EFSI should support strategic investments related to projects that cannot obtain funding because of market failures, suboptimal investment situations or high levels of risk; recalls, furthermore, that when determining the criteria for use of the EU guarantee, EFSI should consider not only the profitability factor, but also the positive effects in terms of growth, job creation and cohesion;
Amendment 23 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Stresses that, while the SMEs window of the EFSI represented a goods an excellent opportunity for start-ups, SMEs and mid- caps, there is a lack of big investment; calls for the creation of further opportunities for SMEs to obtain financing for higher-risk projects, particularly in the digital sector, but also points out that major investment projects should not be forgotten; emphasises, therefore, the need to improve the financing of infrastructure and innovation projects;
Amendment 27 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to help SMEs and micro- enterprises to tap into funding more easily, so as to increase their capacity to implement projects and afford them better access to advisory services and technical support; calls on the Commission for the creation of further opportunities for SMEs to obtain financing for higher-risk projects, particularly in digital sector;
Amendment 30 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Notes that the strong interest and participation in EFSI projects by intermediary banks across the EU in order to provide finance to SMEs was extremely successful; encourages the Commission to work with the EFSI Steering Board to use all the existing possibilities under the EFSI Regulation to reinforce this access to finance for SMEs, in order to increase in the overall volume of actions for these instruments and allow the EIF to finance a significant extra volume of operations;
Amendment 35 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Calls for better coordination between EFSI and other EU funds, in particular the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIFs), so as to promote stronger cohesion in Europe and ensure that EFSI has wide geographical coverage, particularly in those countries in which attempts to obtain EFSI financing have been low; urges the Commission to step up the EFSI communication campaign and to increase awareness of EFSI; suggests preparing information for SMEs to explain, in a simple and intelligible manner using specific examples, how they can obtain financing and the types of projects that are financed by EFSI; calls, also, for closer cooperation with national promotional banks, local and regional authorities and relevant stakeholders, including further encouragement to establish investment platforms to aggregate sectorial and geographical investment opportunities;
Amendment 36 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Calls for better coordination between EFSI and other EU funds, in particular the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIFs), so as to promote stronger cohesion in Europe and ensure that EFSI has wide geographical coverage; calls, also, for closer cooperation with national promotional banks, local and regional authorities and relevant stakeholders, including further encouragement to establish investment platforms to aggregate sectorial and geographical investment opportunities; encourages the Advisory Hub to work more locally and to enhance its cooperation with National Promotional Banks;
Amendment 39 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Recalls that the strong interest and participation in EFSI projects by intermediary banks across the EU in order to provide finance to SMEs was extremely successful;
Amendment 40 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 b (new)
Paragraph 3 b (new)
3b. Calls on the Commission to work with the EFSI Steering Board to use all the existing possibilities to reinforce this access to finance for SMEs in order to increase in the overall volume of actions for these instruments;
Amendment 42 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Underlines the need to increase the transparency of EFSI operations and to improve information about projects and their quality to citizens and potential beneficiaries; believes that all contracts signed between EIB and its clients, either public or private ones, need to be disclosed on a systematic basis, in order to prove the additionally of EFSI projects and demonstrate to the public that it is including strong environmental, social, fraud and integrity clauses in the contracts signed; points to the need to enhance the European Investment Project Portal (EIPP) and the European Investment Advisory Hub (EIAH) in order to establish a link with the real economy, give visibility to projects and provide high-quality technical assistance to potential promoters;
Amendment 49 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Considers that EFSI is instrumental in completing and restructuring the Single Market; underlines, in this light, the importance of strengthening the third pillar of the ‘Investment Plan for Europe’, also in the context of the European Semester process, in order to make the EU regulatory environment more certain, homogeneous and favourable to investments by focusing especially on strategic objectives such as completion of the Single Market and the development of a well-functioning and innovation driven Digital Single Market, and on key actions that support these objectives;
Amendment 71 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Calls on the Commission to step up the EFSI communication campaign and to increase awareness of EFSI by preparing information for SMEs to explain, in a simple and intelligible manner using specific examples, how they can obtain financing and the types of projects that are financed by EFSI;
Amendment 81 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Considers it disappointing that the Commission’s assessment of the EFSI has failed to record the number of jobs created to date under the Fund and where attempts to obtain EFSI financing have been low;