25 Amendments of Rosa D'AMATO related to 2015/0009(COD)
Amendment 31 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 10
Recital 10
(10) The purpose of the EFSI should be to help resolve the difficulties in financing and implementing productive investments in the Union and to ensure increased access to financing. It is intended that increased access to financing should be of particular benefit to small and medium enterprises. It is also appropriate to extend the benefit of such increased access to financing to mid- cap companies, which are companies having up to 3000 employees. Overcoming Europe's current investment difficulties should contribute to strengthening the Union's economic, social and territorial cohesion.
Amendment 41 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 11
Recital 11
(11) The EFSI should support strategic investments with high economic, social and territorial value added contributing to achieving Union policy objectives.
Amendment 45 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 14
Recital 14
(14) The EFSI should target projects delivering high societal and economic value. In particular, the EFSI should target projects that promote job creation, long- term growth and competitiveness especially in the regions characterised by a high rate of unemployment and by geographical disadvantages. The EFSI should support a wide range of financial products, including equity, debt or guarantees, to best accommodate the needs of the individual project. This wide range of products should allow the EFSI to adapt to market needs whilst encouraging private investment in the projects. The EFSI should not be a substitute for private market finance but should instead catalyse private finance by addressing market failures so as to ensure the most effective and strategic use of public money. The requirement for consistency with State aid principles should contribute to such effective and strategic use.
Amendment 59 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 17
Recital 17
(17) Decisions on the use of the EFSI support for infrastructure and large mid- cap projects should be made by an Investment Committee. The Investment Committee should be composed of independent experts who are knowledgeable and experienced in the areas of investment projects. The Investment Committee should be accountable to a Steering Board of the EFSI and to the European Parliament, who should supervise the fulfilment of the EFSI's objectives. To effectively benefit from the experience of the EIF, the EFSI should support funding to the EIF to allow the EIF to undertake individual projects in the areas of small and medium enterprises and small mid-cap companies.
Amendment 60 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 21
Recital 21
(21) Provided that all relevant eligibility criteria are fulfilled, Member States may not use European Structural Investment Funds to contribute to the financing of eligible projects that are supported by the EU guarantee. The flexibility of this approach should maximise the potential to attract investors to the areas of investment targeted by the EFSI.
Amendment 67 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 25
Recital 25
(25) The EIB should regularly evaluate activities supported by the EFSI with a view to assessing their relevance, performance and impact, and to identifying aspects that could improve future activitiess well as their coordination, consistency, and additionality with other Union policies and instruments. European Structural and Investment Funds should not contribute to the support of the EFSI in any way. Such evaluations should contribute to accountability and analysis of sustainability.
Amendment 83 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 29
Recital 29
(29) To partially finance the contribution from the Union budget, the available envelopes of the Horizon 2020 – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation 2014-2020, provided by Regulation (EU) No 1291/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council2 , and the Connecting Europe Facility, provided by Regulation (EU) No 1316/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council3 , should be reduced. Those programmes serve purposes that are not replicated by the EFSI. However, the reduction of both programmes to finance the guarantee fund is expected to ensure a greater investment in certain areas of their respective mandates than is possible through the existing programmes. The EFSI should be able to leverage the EU guarantee to multiply the financial effect within those areas of research, development and innovation and transport, telecommunications and energy infrastructure compared to if the resources had been spent via grants within the planned Horizon 2020 and Connecting Europe Facility programmes. It is, therefore, appropriate to redirect part of the funding presently envisaged for those programmes to the benefit of EFSI. __________________ 3Regulation (EU) No 1316/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2013 establishing the Connecting Europe Facility, amending Regulation (EU) No 913/2010 and repealing Regulations (EC) No 680/2007 and (EC) No 67/2010 (OJ L 348, 20.12.2013, p. 129).unallocated resources should be used, avoiding to affect programmes already planned with the purpose of investment; considering the current crisis, in any case programmes aiming at competitiveness for growth and employment should not be affected;
Amendment 85 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 29 a (new)
Recital 29 a (new)
(29 a) Many existing programmes already provide the possibility to use innovative financial instruments and should therefore be maintained and not replaced by new instruments with a higher risk for the investment.
Amendment 86 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 1 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 2
Article 1 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 2
The purpose of the EFSI shall be to support investments in the Union and to ensure increased access to financing for companies having up to 300250 employees, with a particular focus on small and medium enterprises, through the supply of risk bearing capacity to the EIB ('EFSI Agreement').
Amendment 90 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 32 a (new)
Recital 32 a (new)
(32 a) Member States and the European Parliament, as Commission and EIB, should be active part of the strategic, political and operative body to manage and control EFSI;
Amendment 92 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 33
Recital 33
(33) Although the projects identified under the project pipeline may be used by the EIB in the identification and selection of EFSI supported projects, the project pipeline should have a broader scope of identifying projects across the Union. This scope may include projects that are capable of being fully financed by the private sector or with the assistance of other instruments provided at European or national level. The EFSI should be able to support financing and investment to projects identified by the project pipeline, but there should be no automaticity between inclusion on the list and access to EFSI support and the EFSI be conferred with discretion to select and support projects that are not included on the list. Priority should be given to high quality projects using innovative technologies, promoting sustainability particularly in transport, telecommunication and energy sectors, strengthening the connections between these sectors, with higher efficiency and lower impact on environment and on the health of the people. Social aspects should be taken into account as well.
Amendment 107 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 3 – paragraph 5 – subparagraph 1
Article 3 – paragraph 5 – subparagraph 1
5. The EFSI Agreement shall provide that the EFSI shall have an Investment Committee, which shall be responsible for examining potential operations in line with the EFSI investment policies and approving the support of the EU guarantee for operations in line with Article 5, irrespective of their geographic location.
Amendment 109 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 3 – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 1
Article 3 – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 1
For as long as the only contributors to the EFSI are the Union and the EIB, the number of members and votes within the Steering Board shall be allocated based on the respective size of contributions in the form of cash or guarantees. The number of members shall reflect the different sectors and each Member State should be represented by a member in the Steering Board, in order to guarantee both a geographical and sectoral repartition. The European Parliament should be represented as well.
Amendment 111 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 3 – paragraph 5 – subparagraph 2
Article 3 – paragraph 5 – subparagraph 2
The Investment Committee shall be composed of six independent experts and the Managing Director. Independent experts shall have a high level of relevant market experience in project finance and. They will be appointed byupon proposal of the Steering Board and approval of the European Parliament by absolute majority of its votes for a renewable fixed term of three years.
Amendment 129 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 5 – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 1 – point a
Article 5 – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 1 – point a
(a) development of transport infrastructure, including in the areas of transport, particular for the priorities as defined in Regulation (EU) 1316/2013 (CEF), and in particularly in industrial centres; energy, in particular energy interconnections; and digital infrastructurefrastructure with higher energy efficiency and environmental sustainable; transport investments should represent at least 33% of the total investments under EFSI;
Amendment 133 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 5 – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 2 a (new)
Article 5 – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 2 a (new)
Amendment 135 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 5 – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 2 b (new)
Article 5 – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 2 b (new)
As the transport sector has been strongly affected by the reduction of funding originally reserved to the Connecting Europe Facility, the Investment Committee, when evaluating the projects in this sector, should re-allocate the funds that were previously assigned to TEN-T to projects aimed at favouring the development of transport infrastructures which should be characterised by a low impact on the environment and on the public health and by a high compatibility with a sustainable development at regional and local level.
Amendment 136 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 5 – paragraph 4
Article 5 – paragraph 4
4. Provided that all relevant eligibility criteria are fulfilled, Member States may not use European Structural and Investment Funds to contribute to the financing of eligible projects in which the EIB is investing with the support of the EU guarantee.
Amendment 138 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 5 – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 1 – point a a (new)
Article 5 – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 1 – point a a (new)
(a a) energy, in particular energy interconnections;
Amendment 143 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 5 – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 1 – point b
Article 5 – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 1 – point b
(b) investment in education and training, health, research and development, information and communications technology and innovation, in particular to strengthen the connections between sustainable transport, telecommunication and energy;
Amendment 144 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 9 – paragraph 1
Article 9 – paragraph 1
1. The Commission and the EIB, with support from the Member States, regions and local authorities, shall promote the creation of a transparent pipeline of current and potential future investment projects in the Union, taking into account the Union's goals of economic, social and territorial cohesion. The pipeline is without prejudice to the final projects selected for support according to Article 3(5).
Amendment 152 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 9 – paragraph 3
Article 9 – paragraph 3
3. Member States, regions and local authorities shall develop, update and disseminate, on a regular and structured basis, information on current and future investment projects in their territory.
Amendment 161 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 10 – paragraph 2 – point d
Article 10 – paragraph 2 – point d
(d) an assessment of the quality and effectiveness of EIB financing and investment operations, with a special focus on the results achieved;
Amendment 189 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 13 – paragraph 1 a (new)
Article 13 – paragraph 1 a (new)
EIB shall publish also all the relevant information about the impact of the projects financed under EFSI, with particular regards to environment, health and social issues.
Amendment 195 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 19
Article 19