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EU lawmakers must now approve the fund.
"The plan is the answer we need to confront the main handicap of
the European economy: the lack of investment," said Pierre
Moscovici, the EU economics commissioner, adding that investment
had fallen by 15 to 20 percent since 2008.
The four-year plan fleshes out a call by European Commission
President Jean-Claude Juncker to back riskier projects from
airports to railways and to confront the fall in investment
since the financial crisis.
Setting up the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI)
has been sensitive, with EU governments fearful of not having
their projects chosen from a list of almost 2,000 projects worth
1.3 trillion euros that countries put forward.
Some EU lawmakers are wary of favoritism toward western European
countries over poorer, eastern European members.
Another problem has been that the Commission wanted countries to
stump up money for the fund, insisting that it would not be
included in debt and deficit calculations.
That idea flopped because countries had no guarantee that their
projects would be chosen. Instead, countries such as France,
Spain and Germany said they would help fund projects in their
country via national development banks, and Italy on Tuesday
promised to contribute 8 billion euros to the Italian projects
chosen, via its national promotional bank.
There are also doubts whether the plan will attract enough
private money, however. Juncker's goal is to have 315 billion
euros of largely private new investment by providing 21 billion
euros in capital and first-loss guarantees from the EU budget
and the European Investment Bank.
Under the plan agreed by ministers, the plan will run for four
years but will be reviewed after three years to see if it is
working.
A steering board made up by the European Commission and the
European Investment Bank will oversee the fund, while an
eight-member investment committee will choose the projects.
The list submitted in December, which officials stress is not
definitive, includes plans for housing regeneration in the
Netherlands, a new port in Ireland and a 4.5 billion euro fast
rail connection between Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.
Other ideas involve refueling stations for hydrogen fuel cell
vehicles in Germany, expanding broadband networks in Spain and
making public buildings in France more energy-efficient.
(Additional reporting by Francesco Guarascio; Editing by Hugh
Lawson)
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