We kick-start the European economy

The European Parliament’s plenary session gave green light to the launch of InvestEU, the EU’s new investment plan. The aim of the program consists of boosting the European economy in order to overcome the economic crisis caused by COVID-19 pandemic. Fidesz MEP Enikő Győri, member of the InvestEU parliamentary negotiating delegation, has achieved to obtain an extra 1 billion EUR to support public and private investment, create jobs and support small and medium-sized enterprises. The Hungarian politician underlined: ”We will only be able to recover from the present economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic if Europe takes a different path than the one after the 2008 crisis. It is reassuring that we now have a new Multiannual Financial Framework as well as a new crisis management instrument, the NGEU, and that instead of austerity, the EU finally decided to support public and private investments”.

”Ever since 2010, this has already been the strategy of the Hungarian government. This is the correct approach, since only through investment will it be possible to kick-start the economy, and give a new impetus to the small and medium size enterprises that have been hit particularly severely by the crisis. I am convinced that the InvestEU Programme is a very useful instrument in these regards. I can only reassure this since I have had the honour to be a negotiating team member of this ambitious project. In times of crisis, uncertainty is always on the rise, and access to credit becomes more difficult – but a programme supported by a budget guarantee of 26,2 billion EUR will help us overcome this”, underlined  MEP Enikő Győri.

The Hungarian politician also expressed her satisfaction stating that “It was also a very positive development that InvestEU offers furthermore opportunity to provide capital support to SMEs, and to the so-called strategic investments with the view to strengthen the strategic autonomy of the EU in the field of healthcare, defence and space sector, can also be financed”.

MEP Győri asked both the Commission and the EIB to adapt the specific form of financial support to the situation and to the needs of each sector, and even to that of specific enterprises, and to work in good partnership in order to create tailor-made solutions. ”The Juncker plan, which was the predecessor of the project, did not address at all the investment gap between the eastern and western parts of Europe. A much more balanced access to support for businesses and researchers in the eastern and western parts of the EU should now be ensured”, stressed the Hungarian politician.

Background: The aim of the InvestEU program consists in boosting the European economy by providing long-term funding to support EU policies in order to overcome the economic crisis caused by COVID. It supports public and private investment by providing a 26.2 billion EUR guarantee from the EU budget, thus supporting investment projects selected by the European Investment Bank and other implementing partners, such as national development banks, including the Hungarian Development Bank, increasing the risk-resilience capacity of the financial institutions concerned. An additional envelope of € 400 million can be used for technical advice and project development purposes. The guarantee referred to above is allocated to the following target areas: sustainable infrastructure (€ 9,9 bn), SME support (€ 6,9 bn), research, innovation and digitisation (€ 6,6 bn), and social investment and skills (€ 2,8 bn). These so-called windows contribute to maintaining economic and social stability and strengthening competitiveness. 30% of resources have to be spent on climate protection issues.