European governments have filed some 2,000 projects they hope can earn a slice of the €315 billion investment scheme announced by Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission President, last month.
Research projects on the list range from a proposal from Austria to upgrade its biobanks, a Belgian bid for a nuclear study centre and a request from the Netherlands to top-up funding for its Holst research centre in Eindhoven, which produces micro- and nanoelectronics.
A 73-page report that breaks investments into sectors is accompanied by a 610-page list of projects submitted by each of the 28-member countries. The European Investment Bank (EIB), which will be picking the winners from the pile, says there was a very short deadline and so it was, "not able to screen the submissions by member states in detail."
The European Commission hopes that the first projects it selects will have access to funding starting in June 2015.
Details also emerged for the first time of a special task force, made up of 44 people mostly drawn from the EIB, which will decide which projects get funding. European governments will also nominate one representative each. While the panel of observers includes representatives from the European Commission and the Council, there are no representatives from the European Parliament.
Juncker’s plan, the European Strategic Investment Fund, involves using €21 billion from the EU budget and EIB as guarantees in order to raise private funds that can be invested in infrastructure projects. The plan has drawn criticism from some quarters because of its heavy reliance on leverage and a scatter-gun vision. Previous schemes, including a €120 billion “compact for growth” in 2012, have failed to spark the headline investment figures touted early on.
The main investment categories identified by the Commission are knowledge, innovation and the digital economy; energy union; transport and social infrastructure; and protecting natural resources and the environment.
Research and energy
Improving transport links is top of member state wish lists, with investments in energy projects second.Countries looking to invest in upgrading research infrastructures include Finland, Cyprus, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands and Spain.
Candidate projects on the list include a €850 million investment in a science park and incubator facilities for attophysics research in Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania.
Denmark has suggested a €3 billion investment be directed to hydrogen refuelling stations for fuel cell vehicles, while the UK wants to generate €4 billion to help carbon and capture storage plants, of which there are currently two in the country, build up scale.
It is expected that any country that proposes cash of its own towards projects will stand a better chance of being chosen. This view has been officially rejected by the Commission however, which has stated the main factor will be quality. So far no country has publicly announced any of its own money to the European Strategic Investment Fund.
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