24 June 2015

Spurring economic recovery - EP approves Juncker Plan rules

Research and networks budgets shielded

Parliament sought to improve the financing structure of the plan’s guarantee fund, the fund's governance rules, its working arrangements and its democratic accountability. The key achievements were:

• scaling back cuts in the EU’s “Horizon2020” research and innovation programme and Connecting Europe Facility (CEF – to link up Europe’s energy, transport and digital networks) by €1 billion. Horizon 2020 and CEF, two of the three sources of financing for the EU guarantee backing the plan, will now contribute €2.2 billion and €2.8 billion respectively, i.e. €500 million each less than was originally proposed,

• ensuring that the €1 billion salvaged for the programmes will be paid for out of the unused budget margins of 2014 and 2015,

• winning the right for Parliament to approve the appointment of the managing director and the deputy managing director the investment fund,

• stipulating that the list of approved projects will be public, and

• requiring that a set of project selection criteria and a list of project goals be drawn up to ensure that projects selected are in line with the general priorities of the Union.

© European Parliament