Double to over 600 billion the financial standing of European Fund for Strategic Investments. This is one of the proposals that the president of the European Commission, Jean Claude Juncker, launched today in his speech at the EU Parliament in Strasbourg. Indeed, according to the former Prime Minister of Luxembourg, a "positive agenda" is needed to be adopted in the next 12 months, which will be a "crucial" period for the future of the Union.
Under the plan already in place, the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) will have to mobilise 315 billion euros between 2015 and 2018. Juncker today proposed doubling this sum and lengthening the life of the financial instrument created to support domestic demand and counter deflation risks. Up to now, EFSI has mobilized up to 116 billion euros in just over a year. The target of 630 billion should be reached by 2022.
As for the objectives of European economic policy, "despite the creation of 8 million jobs from 2010 to today - continued Juncker -, social inequality persists. Europe is not social enough. We have to change it."
At the same time, however, the number one of the EU Commission reiterated the need for rigorous budgetary policies, because "the stability pact cannot become a flexibility pact, but it must be applied with intelligent flexibility so as not to hinder growth”.
On the digital front, the European Commission wants to propose that all European city centers have free internet access by 2020. Again in the delicate field of telecommunications, Juncker has promised that within the next week he will present a new legislative project which will ban extraordinary tariffs when the owner of a mobile phone travels abroad (so-called roaming).
For migrants, the president of the EU executive said that “solidarity must come from the heart. It cannot be imposed from above. I urge the Slovak presidency of the Union to bring the member countries together”. In this context, the Commission has proposed the creation of a European Solidarity Corps to enable young people on the continent to intervene, if they so choose, in major natural disasters. The new body must have 120 members by 2020.
Finally, on the side of defense, Juncker confirmed that the European Commission wants to encourage enhanced cooperation between member countries, as required by the Treaties. By the end of the year, the EU executive wants to create a European defense fund. At the same time, the former Luxembourg premier is convinced that a community headquarters should be located in Brussels from which to manage military crises and natural disasters in a unified way.
