Working together for jobs and growth: The role of National and Regional Promotional Banks (NPBs) in the Investment Plan for Europe
Opinion factsheet
F’din il-paġna
- Economy and Finance
- Enterprise and Industry
- Financial market
Opinion number:
CDR-5066-2015
Status:
Adottati
Objective
Promotional banks at regional level must be taken into account in the Investment Plan for Europe.
The CoR is critical of the fact that the European Commission communication focuses purely on the role of the national level and encourages the creation of new national promotional banks alone.
Local and regional authorities should have a greater say in the choice of financial solutions. Failure to consider their opinion often results in support for investments, which are incompatible with regional operational programmes and strategies.
The CoR is critical of the fact that the European Commission communication focuses purely on the role of the national level and encourages the creation of new national promotional banks alone.
Local and regional authorities should have a greater say in the choice of financial solutions. Failure to consider their opinion often results in support for investments, which are incompatible with regional operational programmes and strategies.
Impact
The CoR Opinion drew attention to the role of regional promotional banks in the implementation of the Investment Plan for Europe, next to the national ones, which were the only ones mentioned in the Communication of the European Commission. The May 2016 study of the European Parliament on promotional banks is in line with the CoR standpoint and examines both the role played by national promotional banks and by regional promotional banks in implementing EU SME financial instruments across EU-28, to examine how far they are already involved in implementing these instruments and in what capacity they help to strengthen access to finance for SMEs.
Essential points
THE EUROPEAN COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS
- is critical of the fact that while the formal definition of national promotional banks as a rule also encompasses regional banks, in practice the Commission communication focuses purely on the role of the national level and encourages the creation of new national promotional banks alone;
- draws the European Commission's attention to the considerable importance of giving local and regional authorities a greater say in the choice of financial solutions serving interests at local level. Failure to consider the position of local and regional authorities often results in support for investments which are incompatible with regional operational programmes and local strategies;
- notes the existence of significant development disparities between individual promotional systems at national level, resulting in a systemic deficit in countries and regions with a less developed culture of this type of banking; the outcome of all this could be that national promotional banks, might not always provide enough support for local authorities and enterprises. These banks should further decentralise the services they offer;
- takes the view that decisions on the creation of new institutions should be subject to an in-depth analysis on the appropriateness of creating new institutional structures, so as to avoid any unnecessary proliferation of red tape and waste of resources;
- points out that ex-post evaluation of the effectiveness of existing and newly created regional promotional banks should be long term in nature (10-15 years) given that the investment projects financed usually have a multiannual timeframe;
- stresses that the European Commission and the European Investment Bank should spell out the role of regional promotional banks and other financial institutions in the system of nascent investment platforms as a tool to accomplish the Investment Plan for Europe.