European Structural and Investment Funds and European Fund for Strategic Investments complementarities: Ensuring coordination, synergies and complementarity

The global economic and financial crisis has brought about a sharp drop of investment across Europe thus hampering essential investment in infrastructure and innovation and SME financing. Currently, investment in Europe is 15% below pre-crisis levels. Europe must remedy this investment gap to recover from the crisis and strengthen its global competitiveness. That is why collective and coordinated efforts at European level are needed to reverse this downward trend and put Europe on the path of economic recovery.

Europe’s investment gap points to a market failure, a reduced capacity of investors to take risks. Investment needs are significant and liquidity is available but many potential investments don't materialise due to several financial and non-financial barriers. Investor confidence is low due to economic volatility, along with regulatory and other uncertainties.

In this context, the Commission has decided to tackle the investment gap by launching the Investment Plan for Europe (IPE or Investment Plan) which is based on three pillars:

• Create the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) in partnership with the European Investment Bank and the European Investment Fund (EIB and EIF, altogether the "EIB Group") with a higher risk-taking capacity in order to mobilise at least EUR 315 billion additional finance for investment over three years
• Offer a single point of entry for technical assistance and advisory services on project preparation and implementation, use of financial instruments and capacity building via the European Investment Advisory Hub (EIAH) and provide for a transparent forward – looking pipeline of investment projects in Europe, via the European Investment Project Portal (EIPP)
• Implement regulatory and structural reforms to remove bottlenecks and ensure an investment-friendly environment.