Europäischer Rechnungshof - European Court of Auditors
EU plan helped to substantially address the investment gap, although its target was not fully met
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Press release
Luxembourg, 19 March 2025
EU plan helped to substantially address the investment gap, although its target was not fully met
- EFSI provides major funding after post-2007/2008 financial crisis investment slump
- €500 billion target for additional investments in the real economy not fully reached
- Reported investments by the end of 2022 overstated by 26 %
The European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) helped a great deal in addressing the investment gap in the EU that arose after the 2007-2008 financial crisis, according to a report published today by the European Court of Auditors (ECA). However, EFSI still fell a quarter short of the target to mobilise half a trillion euros in additional investment in the real economy by the end of 2022. In addition, the European Commission did not assess ex post whether EFSI triggered investments that would not otherwise have been made.
EFSI, also known as the Investment Plan for Europe or the Juncker Plan, was created in 2015 by the European Commission and the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group. Its main goal was to tackle the lack of investment across EU countries in the wake of the 2007-2008 financial crisis up to 2014, when total investment spending in the bloc fell by around 15 %, or about 430 billion compared to the peak reached in 2007. EFSI provided €26 billion of EU budget guarantees and €7.5 billion of EIB funding for infrastructure, innovation, and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It aimed to multiply this amount 15-fold by the end of 2022 by drawing in more public and private investment.
“EFSI has contributed substantially to addressing the EU investment gap and has supported many different activities from microfinance to large infrastructure investments, although it did not fully meet its target investment volume,” said Lefteris Christoforou, the ECA Member responsible for the audit.
The auditors found that the €503 billion in additional investment reported by the end of 2022 – the deadline for agreeing financing – was overstated by €131 billion. The overstatement stems from weaknesses in the way the Commission and the EIB designed and applied the multiplier methodology. They based the multiplier effect partially on financing that had not yet been disbursed to final recipients, incorrectly attributed to EFSI part of the investment mobilised by other EU instruments, and failed to deduct cancelled investments.
The main merit of EFSI’s additionality, i.e. added value for the real economy, was support for investments with greater risk. In other words, the EU guarantee was to be granted to investment projects that could not otherwise have been carried out – or not to the same extent, for example via the EIB’s normal operations. Financial intermediaries such as banks and equity funds assessed EFSI additionality positively, claiming that it enabled higher investment volumes, increased individual investments, and attracted additional investors. However, the Commission did not carry out an ex post analysis of additionality that would have provided conclusive evidence of the extent to which public funds had indeed driven additional investment.
EFSI was generally in line with the established targets, and the Commission and the EIB adequately monitored its provisioning and financial flows. However, monitoring was not comprehensive, and reporting was not well scrutinised. Neither the EU executive nor the Bank kept tabs on how EFSI helped employment and sustainable growth as no targets were set in the EFSI agreement, and no details were reported of EFSI support for investments in non-EU countries. Furthermore, based on actual data by the end of 2021, the Commission expected EFSI to be budget-neutral at the very least, but there is currently no estimate of losses or surpluses over its lifetime.
The auditors call upon the Commission to report on EFSI more transparently, and to improve the way it estimates the investment actually mobilised. While EFSI investments are still ongoing, the lessons learned can help to improve the management of other programmes using EU budgetary guarantees, such as InvestEU, the EFSI’s successor.
Background information
EFSI aimed to boost competitiveness and economic recovery following the 2007-2008 financial crisis, and to increase SMEs’ access to finance. It could be used to finance anything from start-ups to major infrastructure. Its funding reached all EU countries to different extents. At the end of 2022, EFSI had benefited 841 957 final recipients in total, according to the Commission.
Special report 07/2025, “The European Fund for Strategic Investments: Contributed substantially to addressing the investment gap but had not fully reached the €500 billion target in the real economy by the end of 2022”, is available on the ECA website. This audit follows up the ECA’s special report on EFSI performance from 2019.
Contact:
ECA press office: press@eca.europa.eu
Damijan Fišer: (+352) 621 55 22 24