THE European Union's executive body yesterday said it wants to spend some 50 billion euros (US$70 billion) over the next decade on transport, energy and telecommunications projects to better link its member states across national borders.
The proposals come against a backdrop of a continentwide financial crisis that has prompted heavy criticism of public spending by the EU at a time when national governments are slashing budgets.
EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso insisted, however, that the Connecting Europe initiative is necessary to overcome the limits of national governments often looking to serve their own electorate first and disregarding multinational plans that would profit the 500 million EU citizens as a whole.
"We are closing the missing links in Europe's infrastructure networks that otherwise would not be built," Barroso said, adding that by putting forward the funds for 2014-2020, "we are making a down payment for Europe's future growth and jobs."
Barroso also launched the idea for special bonds to boost the programs. He said that in a pre-2014 phase, the commission wants to use up to 230 million euros of its budget to mobilize private investment of some 4.5 billion euros.
The overall plan and bond financing received a mixed response.
Guy Verhofstadt, the leader of the ALDE liberal fraction at the European Parliament, said yesterday's "project bonds launch is a welcome and overdue step in the right direction."
"If we want to stimulate growth and job creation in Europe, we have to get on with upgrading our major infrastructure networks and be creative about attracting third party investment," he said.
Germany, the economic juggernaut of the 27-nation EU, insisted that transport network development was foremost the responsibility of the private sector.
"A broad financing of network expansion through the EU budget cannot in any case not be a solution from a regulatory point of view," said Philipp Roesler, Germany's minister for the economy and technology.
The Connecting Europe plan seeks to invest 31.7 billion euros in the transport sector to better link the network of roads, trains and waterways across borders to create a smooth single market.
Source:shanghaidaily