Joint meeting of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and the Committee on Budgets on European Fund for Strategic Investments in the EP in Brussels. Statements by Udo BULLMANN (S&amp;D, DE) and Jos&eacute; Manuel FERNANDES (EPP, PT)

Brussels

KARAS, Othmar (EPP, AT)

Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs

BULLMANN, Udo (S&D, DE)

THOMAS, Isabelle (S&D, FR)

Committee on Budgets

joint meeting

FERNANDES, José Manuel (EPP, PT)

European Fund for Strategic Investments (T)

European Fund for Strategic Investments: extracts from the debate on the report by Udo BULLMANN (S&D, DE) and José Manuel FERNANDES (EPP, PT)

SOUNDBITE (German), Udo BULLMANN (S&amp;D, DE), Rapporteur of the ECON Committee, "This find requires large amounts of funding, if you only have two pillars of investment, the EIB and the EU budget, it would be better if there was a broader base."

SOUNDBITE (German), Udo BULLMANN (S&amp;D, DE), Rapporteur ECON Committee, "The EC wants to go into higher risk, to go into the areas that have been blocked to date. Now this is a sensible, but the from the Parliament's point of view we wonder how can we measure this? how can we follow this up, how can we follow the financing process, Ar there specific categories, are there specific benchmarks, are there operative means to say that this doesn't become business as usual?

SOUNDBITE (German), Udo BULLMANN (S&amp;D, DE), Rapporteur ECON Committee, "People have said, we are willing to provide funding, but we also want to make sure that the money is invested in an intelligent manner. Everyone wants to have their say as regards how the money is spent, this is work between national, regional, European levels. And what possibility will the EP have to look at how money is spent? Perhaps not in detail, but in principle, as representatives of the EU citizens."

SOUNDBITE (Portuguese), Jos&#233; Manuel FERNANDES (EPP, PT), Rapporteur BUDG Committee, "We want feasible investment, we want sustainable growth, smart growth, and inclusive growth. There is more to this plan than just investment, it will have number of positive collateral effects. For one thing, it will remove legal obstacles to the deepening of the Single Market, while at the same time providing extremely important support to for firms with fewer than 3,000 employees, particularly the SMEs."

SOUNDBITE (Portuguese), Jos&#233; Manuel FERNANDES (EPP, PT), Rapporteur BUDG Committee, "Much will hinge on this plan and the other funds which exists. We need to look at the whole available range of investment funding. We need to uphold credibility and as has already been said we need to have transparency too. We have to ensure that there's proper monitoring of the process on the part of the EP, "

SOUNDBITE (German), Othmar KARAS (EPP, AT), Shadow rapporteur, "We must  take into account the private investors' point of view. There must be an indepedent approval and granting of projects. And in order to ensure this we have to think have we can organize this? And what role can we play without creating an extra obstacle? But at the same time ensuring proper surveillance."

SOUNDBITE (French), Isabelle THOMAS (S&amp;D, FR), "As regards the 21billion euro, the base capital, we wonder if this initial capital will be enough? And although Council has said that there will be no participation from Member States, we still wonder about this decision made by the Council.We would also like to know if they found any way to ensure that the initial capital can be increased for reasons that I will evoke later and for the leverage effect which would require it."