Mobilized over 500 billion euros in investments in the European economy

The European Fund for Strategic Investments has helped achieve nearly 1400 investment projects across the European Union using guarantees from the European Union budget and funds from the European Investment Bank.

The plan of the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) – to secure 500 billion euros in investments for the economy of the European Union – has been fully realized. By the end of September 2020, six months before the deadline, EFSI successfully launched as much as 514 billion euros in investments. This is the second time that EFSI, as part of the so-called Juncker Plan, has achieved its goals ahead of schedule. The original plan, which EFSI started in 2014, was to launch 300 billion euros in investments, which was fulfilled back in 2017.

New products and users

EFSI has thus helped achieve nearly 1400 investment projects across the EU using guarantees from the Union’s budget and funds from the European Investment Bank. EU guarantees have enabled the EIB to finance riskier projects through EFSI – such as highly innovative projects of start-up small enterprises. In order to support such projects, the EIB has developed new financial products such as venture capital or investment platforms, further adapting its operations to market needs. This has allowed the EIB to offer its services to new groups of users, with three out of four EFSI users being first-time users of EIB group services. The result of this collaboration is that today twenty million European families have access to fast internet in their homes for the first time, 544 thousand social and affordable housing units have been built, and healthcare has improved for 22 million Europeans. In recent months, EFSI has proven to be a useful mechanism for responding to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to EIB President Dr. Werner Hoyer, EFSI has also offered Europe a model for action in crisis situations.

The good news is that EFSI continues as part of the ‘InvestEU’ program, which the European Commission is preparing from 2021 to 2027. It will also be a key part of the ‘Next Generation EU’ measures for the recovery of the European economy from the consequences of the pandemic by complementing the European ‘Instrument for Solvency Support’. All of this is excellent news for Croatian entrepreneurs who once again have the opportunity to secure financing for their quality projects and thus help accelerate the recovery of the domestic economy.

Financing Croatian projects

Croatian companies have secured 445 million euros from EFSI. It is expected that these funds will trigger up to 1.7 billion euros in investments in the domestic economy. 21 projects in the fields of infrastructure, innovation, and support for small and medium-sized enterprises have been financed. This result would not have been possible without excellent cooperation between the European Investment Bank and domestic partners – primarily the Government of the Republic of Croatia and the Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development, as well as many business financial institutions.

The list of Croatian companies that have secured funds from EFSI is diverse. It includes internationally recognized names such as Rimac Automobili and some of the most successful Croatian companies, such as Valamar Riviera, as well as public sector companies – Hrvatska elektroprivreda – and small businesses like the Osijek Dental Studio ‘Čes’. Therefore, the new investment opportunities that ‘Invest EU’ will bring are also encouraging, a program that the Croatian economy needs to maximize for a faster recovery from the pandemic and for its further sustainable development. The list of projects supported by EFSI clearly shows that there is hardly any economic sector that could not benefit from it – from agriculture, tourism, healthcare, infrastructure to energy efficiency.

Due to the fact that EFSI has managed to increase the European GDP by 1.3 percent and that it will increase it by as much as 1.9 percent by 2022, ‘InvestEU’ is an important source of support for the Croatian economy. The European Investment Bank is already ready, in cooperation with local stakeholders, to enable Croatia to attract even more investments under this program in the next six years to ensure sustainable economic development, protect jobs, and create new ones, thus further strengthening the domestic economy and making it more competitive and efficient.

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