Activities of Eero HEINÄLUOMA related to 2021/2252(INI)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on the future European financial architecture for development
Amendments (18)
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Welcomes the Council’s conclusions on enhancing the European Financial Architecture for Development and underlines the key role of the ‘Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument – Global Europe‘, the European Fund for Sustainable Development Plus (EFSD+) and the External Action Guarantee in providing a strategic framework for blended finance and guarantees and in mobilising resources from the private sector with the support of the EU budget, especially in light of increasing geopolitical and economic competition; highlights that the new Financial Architecture should support the EU’s strategic interests on the global stage, with values, such as democracy, rule of law, gender equality and human rights as underlying principles; calls on all actors to ensure operations outside the Union are aligned with EU external policy objectives and contribute to achieving the EU’s policy priorities;
Amendment 3 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1 a. Notes that the EU is the largest donor in the world; highlights, in this regard, the need to increase the visibility and awareness of the Union’s and Member States’ development actions; encourages all actors relevant to the Financial Architecture to step up their joint engagement in public communication;
Amendment 4 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. StresRecognises that despite somesome progress and recent improvements, have been made, but notes that the current status quo is still characterised by a lack of coordination, fragmentation, duplication and continued competition between the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and European development and finance institutions; underlines the needcalls for further efforts to make the current system more efficient, collaborative and visible, and focused ton ensureing an optimal use of resources, a better return on EU taxpayers’ money and a stronger development impact; calls, in this regard, for the strengthening of cooperation among key partners, notably the European Commission, the EIB, the EBRD, European development finance institutions, national development agencies and Member States, leveraging their respective geographical, sectoral and financial expertise, resources and value- added, to achieve greater efficiency and transformational development impact; considers cooperation with non-EU development banks and stakeholders also important and calls for increased engagement with other international financial institutions;
Amendment 8 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
Amendment 10 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Calls on the EIB, the EBRD and European development and finance institutions to strengthen their cooperation within the EFSD+ open architecture by taking a Team Europe approach; stresses the need for greater specialisation and a better division of labour to ensure synergies and complementaritie defined as a single framework of action, combining their resources with those of all EU institutions and Member States, to provide short and long-term support; underlines that the Financial Architecture should be open, collaborative and inclusive, and enable the participation of all interested development finance actors, including smaller and medium-sized actors; calls, in this regard, on the Commission to simplify access to financing and provide capacity- building and support in pillar assessment applications for smaller development banks and financial institutions; stresses the need for greater specialisation and a better division of labour to ensure synergies and complementarities; encourages European development actors and financing institutions to draw more extensively on EU delegations when building pipelines of investment projects; underlines the need to move away from the current project-based approach towards sector-based programming involving all relevant stakeholders from the start, including the private investors, to increasesector and civil society, to increase transparency, leverage and impact;
Amendment 14 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4 a. Stresses that local ownership and a collaborative and inclusive approach is needed, underpinned by a strong framework for systematic local consultations of stakeholders and beneficiaries, to achieve a lasting development impact; asks the Commission to assess how the framework for systematic local consultations of stakeholders and beneficiaries could be further improved;
Amendment 15 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 b (new)
Paragraph 4 b (new)
4 b. Underlines the importance of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and the Paris Agreement; stresses that gender-responsive investment, involving women, enhances the effectiveness and sustainability of development policies; calls on the Commission, the EIB, the EBRD and European development finance institutions to ensure their advisory and technical assistance is equipped to advance gender equality and inclusive development, notably by employing gender specialists;
Amendment 16 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 c (new)
Paragraph 4 c (new)
Amendment 17 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 d (new)
Paragraph 4 d (new)
4 d. Stresses, furthermore, that increasing private sector involvement brings risks and challenges due to the involvement of a variety of implementation partners and the resulting long chain of actors between funder and end beneficiary; calls, therefore, on all EU development finance actors to ensure funds are channelled only to partners that embrace EU values and policy priorities, follow stringent tax, transparency, environmental and social standards and demonstrate a willingness to support development impacts, as opposed to primarily seeking profit maximisation in vulnerable contexts;
Amendment 19 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Reaffirms the privileged role of the EIB as the EU’s investment arm and welcomes the recent creation of its development branch, EIB Global; underlines that local presence is key for successful financing operations and calls on the EIB to strengthen its presence in the field while exploiting possible synergies with EU delegations, the EBRD and other European development and finance institutions;
Amendment 21 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Highlights the need for a stronger policy steer from the Commission, with the Western Balkans’ Investment Framework serving as a possible model in this regard; calls on the Commission to use its existing resources in terms of banking expertise and its financial and technical capacities more effectivelystresses the importance of an adequate risk management framework, effective management and oversight of the implementation of development finance instruments; calls on the Commission to use its existing resources in terms of banking expertise and its financial and technical capacities more effectively; invites the Commission to assess whether further specialised financial expertise is required for the policy steering function, effective engagement with DFIs and oversight of guarantees and complex blended finance instruments;
Amendment 22 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6 a. Notes that EUR 280 billion out of the EUR 300 billion of investments announced under the Global Gateway initiative are not covered by the EU budget, including EUR 135 billion from EFSD+ and EUR 145 billion from European financial and development finance institutions; notes therefore that the initiative depends heavily on its capacity to leverage funds on the capital markets, which will not be immediately delivered; regrets that no information is disclosed so far regarding the NDICI amounts to be dedicated to the Global Gateway under the external action guarantee;
Amendment 24 #
6 b. Expects the additional EUR 750 million amount announced to be made available in annual tranches until 2027 to be detailed by the European Commission ahead of the annual budgetary procedures concerned;
Amendment 25 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 c (new)
Paragraph 6 c (new)
6 c. Reminds that the NDICI regulation provides for a financial cushion of EUR 9.53 billion, which should be limited to financing new initiatives, priorities or emerging challenges; stresses that the cushion should not cover projects already agreed under the Global Gateway initiative; considers, therefore, that additional appropriations should be dedicated to the initiative above the limited ceiling for Heading 6;
Amendment 26 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Recognises the importance of encouraging riskier investments in more challenging development settings, such as fragile or conflict-affected countries, and underserved sectors such as the climate, biodiversity and health sectors; underlines, at the same time, the need to preserve the high credit rating of the EIB and to fully protect the EU budget from any associated risks, such as increased demand on the EU budgetary guarantees as well as increased risk of misuse of funds through fraud or corruption; invites the Commission and the EIB to engage in a more granular country-by-country risk assessment for adjusting gradually the EU budgetary guarantees to the adequate levels to cope with current challenges; calls, furthermore, for increased transparency of development operations carried out by financial intermediaries with a view to ensuring control over funds and mitigating the risk of corruption, notably by disclosing final beneficiaries and making the granting of direct and indirect loans subject both to publication by the beneficiaries of tax and accounting data country by country and to the sharing of beneficial ownership data on the beneficiaries and financial intermediaries involved in financing operations;
Amendment 30 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Highlights the need to increase the transparency of the current framework, including the programming and reporting processes, and for Parliament to be more heavily involved to enhance democratic accountability and scrutiny; underlines the importance of carrying out an independent evaluation of the EFSD+ and the Team Europe approach in due time to assess their effectiveness and performance., performance and development impact; underlines the need to ensure the EFSD+ facilitates learning about best practices concerning sector- and region-specific projects;
Amendment 31 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8 a. Underlines that obtaining relevant, consistent and comparable information in a timely manner is essential for measuring progress and actual results, and in identifying whether EU development finance has been effective and additional; regrets the absence of a unified reporting and results measurement framework for EFSD+ with comparable indicators; encourages the Commission to develop such a framework to enable harmonised results management; invites the Commission to update the European Parliament on the content and implementation of this framework;
Amendment 35 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 b (new)
Paragraph 8 b (new)