A European fund for economic revival in crisis countries

by Benedicta Marzinotto on 9th February 2011

Significant volumes of Structural and Cohesion Funds have been pre-allocated but remain undisbursed or uncommitted. In Portugal, unused funds amount to 9.3 percent of GDP, in Greece close to 7 percent, and in central and eastern European countries about 15 percent. These funds should be part of a temporary European Fund for Economic Revival (EFER) for 2011-13, which would promote economic growth in crisis-hit countries and facilitate structural reforms.

For countries under financial assistance in particular, the European Commission has a role to play in identifying the ‘right’ objectives for which the funds should be used. The Commission could decide to manage the funds directly with the support of an executive agency.

Greater efforts should be made to exploit synergies between EU grants and European Investment Bank loans, allowing EIB loans to finance the total costs of a project or programme in small countries, and leveraging the whole EU budget to attract private investment.

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  • Ethanael 17th May 2011

    That's a mold-berkear. Great thinking!

  • Bruno Duarte 20th March 2011

    Ms. Marzinotto,

    I draw your attention upon JEREMIE - http://www.eif.org/what_we_do/jeremie/index.htm. As a former DG Budget official (stagiaire), I may enlighten you on fund disbursement: the Budget is allocated and not disbursed because projects were not proposed to the Commission satisfying requisites hence obtaining approval. Yet, Member States may use JEREMIE to channel committed funds.

    KR Bruno

    • mqjbqjsj 4th November 2011

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    • Henny 29th October 2011

      This is way more heplufl than anything else I've looked at.

    • Benedicta Marzinotto 28th March 2011

      Dear Sir

      thank you for pointing that out. It is indeed an important project together with JASPERS (see footnote 19). We do in fact account for the size of similar iniatives (EIB & EU Commission), see for example vertical axis in Figure 5. As I understand, your main point is that the EIB has an important role to play in facilitating the absorption of EU funds. I am in full agreement.

      Best regards,
      BM