1. The European Economic Recovery Plan
Morten Jensen SSS and MoS Focal Points Meeting Brussels, March 2010

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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)

7. Thank you for your attention