The European Economic Recovery Plan Morten Jensen SSS and MoS Focal Points Meeting Brussels, 18-19 March 2010

The economic crisis The European Commission proposed the European Economic Recovery Plan to the European Council in November 2008 It contained two pillars: First pillar: An injection to the economy amounting to € 200 billion (1.5% of GDP) Second pillar: A programme to direct action to « smart » investment The Commission proposed a European Economic Recovery Plan to the European Council in November 2008 as a response to the economic crisis. The EERP was endorsed by the European Council in December 2008

The strategic aims of the EERP The EERP was a counter-cyclical macro-economic response to the economic crisis: To swiftly stimulate demand To Lessen the human cost of the economic downturn To prepare Europe for the return of growth To speed up shift towards a low carbon economy The aim of the EERP was to mitigate the negative effects of the economic crisis by: Stimulating demand Lessen the human costs, in particular unemployment To continue addressing the bottlenecks that were impeding growth and thereby pepraring for the return of growth To speed up the shift towards a low carbon economy – issues which are on the agenda this afternoon

10 actions in the four areas of the Lisbon Strategy People Launch a major European Employment initiative Create demand for labour Business Enhance access to financing for business Reduce the administrative burdens and promote entrepreneurship Infrastructure and energy Step up investments to modernise Europe’s infrastructure (including TEN-T) Improve energy efficiency in buildings Promote the rapid take-up of « green products » Research and innovation Increase investment in R&D, Innovation and Education Developing clean technologies for cars and construction High-speed internet for all The EERP contained 10 actions but I will focus my presentation on action taken in the context of the transEuropean network for transport. However, it is worth mentioning that an additional NEW budget of € 2 B were allocated to develop the energy networks

TEN-T in the EERP Launch a € 500 million call before end of March 2009 brining forward existing funds Projects to start in 2009 or, at the latest, in 2010 AND to implement the bulk by end of 2010 Only works (no studies) The objectives in the context of the EERP were twofold: To mobilise investments corresponding to six times the value of the call, i.e. € 3 billion; Accelerate the delivery of the TEN-T infrastructure So what was the action in TEN-T ? The launching of a call of € 500 M three months later, i.e. in March 2009. The reason for the socalled bulk rule was to ensure injection of money into the economy with the expectation that this would have a sixfold effect in terms of injection of money. Furthermore, it would of course accelerate delivery of TEN-T infrastructure

The TEN-T EERP call Deadline was 15 May 2009 99 proposals were received requesting over € 2 billion EU support 39 proposals have been selected for funding 4 projects are investments in ports All projects have been adopted in 2009 (except a few projects where problems have occured)

Thank you for your attention Morten.jensen@ec.europa.eu www.ec.europa.eu/tentea