The European Fund for Strategic Investments: From crisis response to lasting impact

The European Commission and the European Investment Bank proposed the Investment Plan for Europe in November 2014, as an initiative to fight economic weakness lingering from the 2008 financial crisis. The aim: to relaunch investment and restore EU competitiveness, thus increasing growth and creating jobs.

The original goal of EFSI was to trigger EUR 315 billion in additional investments over three years. The initiative was extended in late 2017 and now aims to mobilise EUR 500 billion by 2020. This will be possible with the help of a EUR 26 billion guarantee from the EU. The EIB plans to complement this guarantee with EUR 7.5 billion from its own resources. The total new amount of EUR 33.5 billion will be used to leverage more investment in two ways:

• It will enable the EIB Group to support the European economy with some EUR 100 billion on top of the Bank’s normal activity.
• Since the EIB Group is never the only investor in a project, each euro of EIB financing will generate third-party investment worth several times this amount. This process of attracting co-investment is called “crowding in”.