During the plenary session of the European Parliament in Brussels (08-11 March 2021), MEPs debate on the InvestEU Programme: Opening statements by José Manuel FERNANDES (PPE,PT), by Irene TINAGLI (S&D,IT), rapporteurs, by Pascal CANFIN (Renew, FR) ENVI, Seán KELLY (EPP, IE) ITRE, Tom BERENDSEN (EPP, NL) TRAN, by Paolo GENTILONI, European Commissioner for Economy, by Sabine VERHEYEN (EPP, DE) CULT and Frances FITZGERALD (EPP, IE) FEMM. This transcription speech is the result of an automatic process. Check against delivery.

Brussels

statement

debate

plenary session

economic growth (T)

GENTILONI, Paolo (IT, EC)

FERNANDES, José Manuel (EPP, PT)

TINAGLI, Irene (S&D, IT)

European Green Deal (T)

economic situation in Europe (T)

InvestEU programme 2021-2027 (T)

InvestEU Programme: Opening statements by José Manuel FERNANDES (PPE, PT), by Irene TINAGLI (S&D, IT), rapporteurs, by Paolo GENTILONI, European Commissioner for Economy and by the committee chairs

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/2709259/I202804Chapters%5BSD-EN%5D.srt

SOUNDBITE (Original), Heidi HAUTALA (Greens/EFA, FI), chair, We now come to the report by Mr Fernandez substantially on the Invest EU programme. I'd like to remind members that for all debates of this participation, there'll be no catch the eye procedure and no blue cards will be accepted.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Heidi HAUTALA (Greens/EFA, FI), chair, Furthermore, as during the last part sessions, remote interventions from the European Parliament liaison offices in the member states are provided for. The first speaker will be a colleague, Mr. Fernandes, as one of the rapporteurs, you have the floor.

SOUNDBITE (Original), José Manuel FERNANDES (PPE,PT), rapporteur, Thank you, President. Commissioner, dear colleagues, I want to thank everyone who in the previous term already worked on this dossier. I pay tribute to the co rapporteur here Irene Tinagli and all of the shadows from all political groups.

SOUNDBITE (Original), José Manuel FERNANDES (PPE,PT), rapporteur, The EU needs public and private investment alike that will strengthen the competitiveness of the EU, increase its productivity, and at the same time contribute to territorial, economic and social cohesion. We thereby maintain jobs and we create jobs at the same time, high quality jobs. The. Former Juncker plan, ESIF, leveraged half a billion euros. And created many, many jobs after 2015.

SOUNDBITE (Original), José Manuel FERNANDES (PPE,PT), rapporteur, InvestEU should do even more because it brings together 14 EU instruments that were previously separate. It should enable continuity, efficiency and synergies. It's supposed to mobilise more than 400 billion euros from 2021 to 2027.

SOUNDBITE (Original), José Manuel FERNANDES (PPE,PT), rapporteur, In the negotiations on the MFF, which I participated in, we managed against the council's wish and with little help from the from the commission. We managed to get an additional billion euros to establish guarantees within investEU. During negotiations on investEU, we achieved many improvements. It's possible to create tools to capitalise SMEs, which is so important because SMEs are so important.

SOUNDBITE (Original), José Manuel FERNANDES (PPE,PT), rapporteur, And this tool is so important because of the fallout of the pandemic, particularly in the tourism sector and in the catering and restaurant sector. The council doesn't seem to have learnt from the crisis because it removed one of the windows for strategic investment. Nevertheless, we managed to establish the four windows for investEU.

SOUNDBITE (Original), José Manuel FERNANDES (PPE,PT), rapporteur, So thanks to the European Parliament on a voluntary basis, the member states can use five percent of cohesion funds and four percent of their national budgetary envelope from the Recovery and Resilience Fund or facility. This will enable them to establish their national component of investeEU. This will provide added value if it's well used by the member states.

SOUNDBITE (Original), José Manuel FERNANDES (PPE,PT), rapporteur, Given the fact that there are financial difficulties in the member states, this fund provides an excellent opportunity. That means that there can be a tool to enable the solvency of SMEs. And it also makes it possible to invest sustainably in research in SMEs, in training and in the social area. But this also represents an opportunity. But we have to act urgently.

SOUNDBITE (Original), José Manuel FERNANDES (PPE,PT), rapporteur, If the member states have to use this, then we need to have partnership agreements between the member states and the commission and the RRF needs to be approved. But investEU needs to be an additional fund. I'll also add that grants and loans will make it possible to turn projects into reality that otherwise wouldn't see the light of day. So what we need to avoid here is overlap the recovery plan and the partnership agreements. Needs to be complementary.

SOUNDBITE (Original), José Manuel FERNANDES (PPE,PT), rapporteur, InvestEU is a flexible tool allowing member states to plan the use of their funds and not just be mere end users of these funds. Commissioner, I thank you for your determination in the negotiations. Now, the commission needs to take decisions swiftly and establish a geographical balance in the use of the guarantees, because we all know that investEU is driven by demand.

SOUNDBITE (Original), José Manuel FERNANDES (PPE,PT), rapporteur, You need to look at all of the projects that are submitted and that will require. Constant contact with the financial beneficiaries is also so important that the invest EU advisory hub works well. The advisory hub needs to help the most underdeveloped regions or those regions that are suffering the most. And there needs to be work with national banks and national promotion banks.

SOUNDBITE (Original), José Manuel FERNANDES (PPE,PT), rapporteur, In conclusion, I hope that the commission will help to establish cross-border platforms and hubs. I hope that the commission will move forward with the digital union, with a health union. The crisis has shown that we need a resilient industry, particularly a resilient pharmaceutical industry. At the same time, we need autonomy, particularly in our strategic sectors.

SOUNDBITE (Original), José Manuel FERNANDES (PPE,PT), rapporteur, I will say that the parliament has done its bit. Now it's up to the member states to live up to their part of the bargain, as must the commission. The EU citizens deserve investment and high quality jobs. Thank you.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Irene TINAGLI (S&D,IT), rapporteur, We are at the end of a great adventure that began in 2018 with the first commission's proposal. It was a long and bumpy journey, but we can now celebrate an important success. I would like to thank the present and past components of the negotiating team in the parliament, and especially my co rapporteur, José Manuel Fernandes. For what we've done together. In this term we went through some exciting moments.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Irene TINAGLI (S&D,IT), rapporteur, For example, when in May 2020, the commission represented the InvestEU proposal with a very ambitious budget, but also through moments of great concern. For example, when member states decided during the July 2020 European Council a very severe cut on investEU budget line, making it basically marginal and useless programme. We did not get discouraged.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Irene TINAGLI (S&D,IT), rapporteur, We worked to give a worthy heir to the Juncker plan and also to create an ambitious programme capable of facing the challenges of our times. Looking at the text of the final agreement that we will vote today, we can say that our commitment has been rewarded. There are more funds, there are more ambitious environmental targets. There is more national European synergy, thanks to the possibility for other implementing partners to promote projects.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Irene TINAGLI (S&D,IT), rapporteur, But our real success has been to place investEU at the heart of next generation EU. InvestEU is a long term investment programme with a particular focus on SMEs. It's full windows cover the major objectives that the union has set for the coming years. Sustainability, Innovation, Research, Social Infrastructure. InvestEU is a programme that, perhaps more than others, highlights the paradigm shift that has taken place in the union.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Irene TINAGLI (S&D,IT), rapporteur, The real innovation of the next generation EU is not just the money made available to member states. Next generation EU is much more than that. It is the acknowledgement that there are individual and collective needs that are currently not fully satisfied. The financial crisis of 2008 and the economic crisis caused by the covid pandemic have shown us that there is a lack of supply of goods and services that are necessary for well-being of citizens and firms.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Irene TINAGLI (S&D,IT), rapporteur, And bridging this gap is the challenge of our time. InvestEU is one of the responses that the union has put in place. But investEU is not just about resilience. It is a tool for recovery. First of all, Parliament fought harder to create a synergy with the recovery and resilience facility. And thanks to our member states now will be able to divert up to four percent of their funds from the recovery fund to guarantee investment projects eligible for investEU.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Irene TINAGLI (S&D,IT), rapporteur, We also managed to resurrect a fundamental tool for the recovery that the European Council of July 2020 had basically eliminated: the solvency support instrument. My colleague Fernandes already mentioned that. But really, I would like to underline the importance of this tool. Now, both the European and the national compartments of investEU will be able to provide capital support to small and medium sized enterprises that went into trouble due to covid-19 pandemic.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Irene TINAGLI (S&D,IT), rapporteur, It is perhaps the most important result that we as a parliament have achieved. But let me say that without the strong commitment of Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni during the negotiations, we probably would not have made it. So thank you. Thank you, Paolo. Our work is not done yet. We still have to scrutinise the delegated acts, in particular the one on investment guidance, and we have to appoint to the governance bodies, the advisory board, the steering board and the investment committee.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Irene TINAGLI (S&D,IT), rapporteur, During one of the trialogues on InvestEU I realized that the majority of the people that were present in the room during the negotiations were women. InvestEU is therefore the result of the work and the effort of many women. So it would be nice if the commission, the EIB, the implementing partners, but also the Committee of the Regions, the European Economic and Social Committee and the European Parliament, keep this in mind when they will have to appoint their representatives in these bodies. Not because it is a provision in the regulation that because it's the right thing to do. So thank you very much to everybody.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Tom BERENDSEN (EPP,NL), TRAN, Thank you very much, President. If we want to guarantee that future generations will also benefit from prosperity, we're going to have to invest now in growth. And that's exactly what this programme InvestEU will do with investing in SMEs, in innovation and infrastructure.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Tom BERENDSEN (EPP,NL), TRAN, I'm particularly satisfied with the fact that there is more space being given for investment in strategic sectors and critical infrastructure, transport and digital. We've seen in this crisis that in many areas we're far too dependent on other parts of the world. We have to move away from that. At the same time when it comes to the implementation of this programme we'll follow this with a close, critical eye.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Tom BERENDSEN (EPP,NL), TRAN, We have to make sure that every euro that is invested is done well and every euro that is borrowed is paid back. We have to make sure that every euro is going towards strengthening our economy. That means we're not just shifting the problems onto the next generations, but we're establishing a solid basis for further growth.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Paolo GENTILONI,  European Commissioner for Economy, Madam President, honourable members, we are very pleased with the agreement reached on InvestEU at the end of last year, also because the parliament played a strong role reinforcing important elements of the regulation. I would like to thank everyone involved, and in particular the corapporteurs, José Manuel Fernandes and Irene Tinagli for their commitment and constructive stubbornness.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Paolo GENTILONI,  European Commissioner for Economy, The programme will bolster, as you know, future oriented investments across the EU. It will provide crucial support to companies, which is even more important in view of the still ongoing crisis. We need private investments for the EU policy priorities such as the Green Deal and the digital transition and the resilience of our societies. And we need them, especially after the pandemic, of course, with an estimate of a drop in private investment for the next year and with the clear policy goal not to repeat what happened with the previous crisis.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Paolo GENTILONI,  European Commissioner for Economy, We know that in the previous crisis, public net investment went practically to zero. So we have to reinforce our capacity of public investment and of crowding private investment. With a guarantee of 26 billion, InvestEU will mobilise an investment of more than three hundred and seventy billion in Europe.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Paolo GENTILONI,  European Commissioner for Economy, This is with some caution. We didn't use figures in this situation that cannot be effectively reached. The defining elements remain the EU guarantee that will be open to EIB group and to national promotion banks and other international institutions with a split 75/25 percent. The guarantee will be allocated to the four policy windows that were reminded us from the rapporteurs.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Paolo GENTILONI,  European Commissioner for Economy, And the programme also benefits from the additional elements agreed by the legislatures and which the Parliament has and the rapporteurs have been instrumental. First InvestEU will contribute to the recovery efforts as member states can use it as a tool to implement their national RRF plans. And I have to say that a number of member states have already informally signalled to the commission their interest for this possibility.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Paolo GENTILONI,  European Commissioner for Economy, Second, the possibility for implementing partners to provide capital support to SMEs. It is very important, as our rapporteurs just reminded us. Third, in addition to the ambitious climate targets, InvestEU fund will provide for a dedicated scheme to generate additional investment, to benefit of just transitioned territories. And also this in complementarity with other funds, I think is very important.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Paolo GENTILONI,  European Commissioner for Economy, And last but not least, the parliament obtained an increase of the budget through the MFF top ups of one billion and supported the possibility to combine them with InvestEU guarantee with legacy instruments like the Juncker plan and others. So investEU might not be in the limelight today, but it remains deeply innovative budgetary tool, using budget guarantees to crowd in private and public investment in a cost efficient use of taxpayer money.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Paolo GENTILONI,  European Commissioner for Economy, And the commitment from the commission to use our investment hub to make this happen is a very strong one. We don't just crowd in money. We align private investment with our policy priorities and channel their funds into public goods. So looking ahead, this approach is an efficient way to meet the growing investment needs of the transition, but also for our social model. Thank you.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Sabine VERHEYEN (EPP,DE), CULT, President, dear colleagues, the cultural and creative sectors are of strategic importance to the union as they generate important societal market value. They have a high potential for innovation. As a new flagship investment programme, InvestEU has a strong potential to kick start the European economy and in particular to boost social investment and investment in human capital.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Sabine VERHEYEN (EPP,DE), CULT, This covers education and training and the cultural and creative sectors. These sectors have been hardly hit by the current covid-19 crisis. In its opinion, the CULT committee's aim is looking to reinforce the position of the cultural and creative sectors as regards their access to financing through the InvestEU programme.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Sabine VERHEYEN (EPP,DE), CULT, The InvestEU programme should therefore support critical infrastructure also in the audiovisual, media, cultural and creative sectors through investment under the new investment window, especially to support international distribution, competitiveness and innovation. Thank you.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Frances FITZGERALD (EPP,IE), FEMM, Thank you. More than ever we need to support our businesses. I'm glad the investEU agreement recognises those companies that are at risk of insolvency due to the covid-19 crisis. Up to 400 billion can be mobilised with InvestEU. This will be a game changer for families and businesses most at risk and for our cultural and creative sectors, as we've heard.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Frances FITZGERALD (EPP,IE), FEMM, Yet, while investEU's goal is to primarily support SMEs, it also has the potential to build gender equality and invest in women's economic empowerment, a critical issue in the recovery. It can help close the gender gap, fostering female creativity and entrepreneurial potential, and supporting the development of care, infrastructure and an infrastructure for victims of violence.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Frances FITZGERALD (EPP,IE), FEMM, Public and private, as we've heard, must work together. This twin approach will drive competition and innovation and a jobs driven recovery. Let's build back better and adapt our economies to a more green digital and of course, inclusive future. Parliament has ensured that InvestEU contributes to achieving the target of spending at least 30 percent of EU funds on climate objectives. Thank you.