Today the Commission has taken another step to bridge the investment gap in European infrastructure projects.
A Delegation Agreement signed today with the European Investment Bank will commit over €2 billion of the EU’s budget to innovative financial instruments under the Connecting Europe Facility 
(CEF). With each euro leveraging up to 15 euros of private investment, the CEF financial instruments could bring up to €30 billion of fresh money into key infrastructure projects in the transport, energy and telecommunication sectors. Thanks to these instruments, projects will benefit from an enhanced credit rating, which will encourage private sector investments.
Commissioner for Transport Violeta Bulc said “The 2014 CEF Transport calls had been massively oversubscribed and many projects could not receive EU funding despite their high quality. I am convinced that the CEF financial instruments can help to address this by attracting private investors instead. This is another step towards bridging the investment gap in Europe, which is the Commission’s top priority ! I hope many transport projects will benefit from these innovative financial solutions”.
Original source: European Commission
