Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-11-21-Speech-4-021"
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"Madam President, allow me first of all to tell you how much I appreciate having this opportunity to continue the dialogue with the European Parliament, in particular at a time when this House is opening up to members of parliament from States that are soon to join the European Union.
Mrs Lucas raised some interesting points, but I have already exceeded my speaking time. I will be able to give her more information in committee, in particular with regard to the Lesotho project she mentioned. I can simply confirm that, as soon as we became aware of signs of possible fraud, we ordered a detailed audit and communicated the information assembled during this audit to both Olaf, the monitoring body with which you are familiar, and to the Lesotho legal institutions. We did not uncover any fraud with regard to the use of EIB funds, but our enquiry at that time enabled us to discover other factors which we communicated to the competent authorities. I shall be able to say more about this in committee.
Madam President, I hope that the House has found my response informative and that it has given you an idea of the way in which we and all the Bank’s staff view our responsibilities and intend to put them into practice over the coming years, in close cooperation with the Commission and maintaining dialogue with Parliament.
Two weeks ago in Vienna, speaking before the annual European Investment Bank Forum, President Cox recalled the historical importance of enlargement and emphasised, with particular eloquence, that this move is the essential extension of the work towards peace and stability commenced by the founders of European integration. For its own, modest, part, the European Investment Bank, which was created by the Treaty of Rome for the purpose of providing financial support for the political objectives of the European Community, is trying to contribute to successful enlargement.
The European Investment Bank, which already has a portfolio of loans of around EUR 18 billion in this region, making it by far the main backer, will, of course, continue to back the necessary investments in the future Member States. Three areas in particular are targeted: infrastructures, with particular regard to transport, energy and telecommunications; the environment, because tremendous investment is needed in order to achieve compliance with Community standards; and, lastly, direct foreign investment, because it is a particularly powerful tool in bringing conditions in the candidate countries into line with those in the current Member States. The preparation of the candidate countries for accession is therefore one of five priority axes adopted by the Council of Governors of the EIB last June, when it agreed to a 50% capital increase for the European Investment Bank.
I shall briefly mention the other four priority axes. First of all, regional development, with a view to devoting 70% of our direct loans and at least 50% of our global loans to projects based in regions eligible for assistance under the Structural Funds. Then what we call the i2i (Initiative innovation 2000) programme, which was implemented following the Lisbon European Council and which aims to encourage investments that contribute to transforming the European economy into an economy based on knowledge and innovation. Over EUR 13 billion of loans have already been approved within the context of this initiative. Another priority axis is environmental protection and improvement, with the objective of devoting between one quarter and one third of our total loans each year to environmental projects. The fifth and final priority axis is our support for the European development aid policy, in particular with the launch of two new facilities: the Euro-Mediterranean Facility, which was established by the Barcelona European Council, and the new Investment Facility created by the Cotonou agreement between the European Union and the ACP countries.
Having thus briefly summarised the five priority axes for the coming years, I would now like to try to respond to the various speakers. I confirm that I will be available to give fuller, more precise answers at committee meetings. I would like first of all to respond to your rapporteur, Mrs van den Burg, who has put a great deal of effort into preparing this excellent report. I would like briefly to raise a subject close to her heart: the use of EIB bonds by pension funds. In the United Kingdom, pension funds have already invested in long-term EIB bonds. We have not yet had the same success on the euro market, but we are trying to find formulas that might be of greater interest to pension funds and insurance companies.
Employment, which many of you have continued to focus on, clearly constitutes a final objective. I believe, however, that it would be dangerous to make the number of jobs created directly by a project the deciding factor in the decision on whether to finance the project. In this regard, I share some of the reservations expressed by Mrs Peijs. We consider that our project must have a positive impact on the economy, through the innovation-productivity-growth-employment chain, but that it would be dangerous to establish too direct a link between the number of jobs created and the choice of a particular project.
With regard to the financing of SMEs, I would remind you that we finance small and medium-sized enterprises in two ways: on the one hand, through global loans, as half of our global loans go to small enterprises, and, on the other, through the provision of risk capital from the European Investment Fund. I would say to the Commission, in response to the comment by Commissioner Monti echoing one of the report’s recommendations, that, in fact, we plan to adopt the Commission’s definition of small and medium-sized enterprises. We must, however, first solve one problem, which is that of medium-sized enterprises. The latter are in danger of being considered too large to receive global loans but too small to benefit from direct loans. When we have found the appropriate method for medium-sized enterprises, we will in effect be able to adopt the Commission’s definition.
With regard to the important matter of monitoring the European Investment Bank, I would say that, naturally, we are entirely open to monitoring by the Court of Auditors within the scope of its competence. Mr Blak, I can assure you that the Court of Auditors has access to all the documents it wishes to obtain within the context of the tripartite agreement concluded between the Commission, the Court of Auditors and the European Investment Bank. This agreement operates to the satisfaction of all three parties. The President of the Court of Auditors confirmed this to me and you have just heard Commissioner Monti say that the Commission, too, is satisfied with this agreement, which will be renegotiated and renewed. In this regard, there is therefore no problem. The Court of Auditors has the power to monitor the use of Community funds and, insofar as the EIB uses Community funds, the Court of Auditors must clearly be fully able to exercise its monitoring powers.
There is also, however, the sector of EIB activities which have nothing to do with Community funds and are financed by our earnings from financial markets all over the world. These activities, naturally, also need monitoring. Moreover, it is in our interests to be monitored effectively, and we are already monitored by a verification committee and external auditors who report directly to the governors. That said, I think it would be desirable to find a form of supervision that is appropriate for a bank. I have already said this before the House, and I confirm it today. We are entirely open to the idea, and even keen to be subject to a form of banking supervision. Furthermore, that is why we are following with great interest the discussions taking place on the possible creation of a European banking supervisor."@en1
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