EU leaders agree to support Juncker's investment plan

The European Union (EU) leaders on Thursday in their summit meeting agreed to support the Investment Plan for Europe, calling for setting up a European Fund for Strategic Investment (EFSI) and starting the plan as early as mid-2015.

In an official statement issued by the European Council, the EU leaders called on the European parliament to endorse a proposal plan which will be prepared by the European Commission in January next year, so that the new investment can be activated "as early as mid-2015".

The statement also called on EU member states to provide contributions to the EFSI, "directly or through national promotional banks".

The investment plan was announced by new European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Nov. 26.

Juncker decided to set up a European Fund for Strategic Investment together with the European Investment Bank to kick-start investment projects in Europe.

According to his plan, the Fund, as a seed money, will be supported by 16 billion euros' EU budget and another 5 billion from the European Investment Bank (EIB), and is expected to attract more investors to join and reach an overall multiplier effect of 1:15 in real investment, namely at least 315 billion euros (386 billion U.S. dollars) over the next three years (2015-2017), in the economy.

On the eve of the summit, Juncker urged the EU member states to add to the seed money.

"Several states have shown potential interest in doing so," Juncker said in a debate at the European Parliament.

"I am now waiting for concrete proposals to this end and not just 'talk-talk'. I need 'money-money,' hard cash now," he said.

The 28 member states have already submitted a huge wishlist of projects totaling 1.3 trillion euros.

"Obviously, not all of these are new, strategic and economically viable," Juncker said Wednesday at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

Juncker assured that in order to guarantee that projects are chosen on their merits, investment decisions should be based on an independent and expert analysis of the intrinsic merits and economic and social viability of each project.

"There will be no sectorial or geographic pre-allocations or ' quotas'," he said.

"There are many interesting examples-like infrastructure for energy-connections in Finland, Poland and the Baltic States, reform of school infrastructure in Italy or modernization of regional hospitals in Belgium, to just mention some examples," Juncker added.

In addition to the investment plan, the EU leaders also called for further efforts being made by the EU and the United States to conclude negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) by the end of 2015.