15 October 2013

VP Rehn's remarks at the ECOFIN Council

Rehn said the Commission would take into account public investment plans for productive investment related to co-financing of European projects, under specific conditions and within the clear limits set by the Stability and Growth Pact, when Member States' draft budget plans for 2014 were assessed.

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My second point concerns productive investment, especially the issue of how public investments which support sustainable growth can be accommodated within our fiscal rules. Following repeated requests from the European Council, the Commission has explored this issue very carefully indeed. I set out our conclusions in a letter to Finance Ministers on 3 July. I don't want to go into detail on that, but just remind you of the key conditions, they apply to Member States that had economic growth clearly well below its potential.

Second, the 3 per cent rule of fiscal deficit must not be breached and the public debt rule of the six pack legislation must be respected. And third, this needs to be focused on co-financed projects with European Structural and Cohesion policy, Communication and the Connecting Europe Facility. These must have a positive, direct and verifiable long-term budgetary effect. These are the keys conditions of the investment clause.

I was listening very carefully today to the discussion among the Ministers, and it seems to be that the Ministers are somewhat divided. However, since the Commission has acted on the basis of a clear and unequivocal mandate, given by the European Council, I can confirm that we will proceed on the basis I have just set out, and as I wrote in my letter to the Finance Ministers. In other words, the Commission will take into account public investment plans for productive investment related to co-financing of European projects, under these specific conditions and within the clear limits set by the Stability and Growth Pact, when we assess of Member States’ draft budget plans for 2014.

This is of concrete importance, not least today, because today is the last day of submission of draft budgetary plans by Member States, especially of the euro area Member States to the Commission. Today, I clarified to those Ministers who will use this investment clause, so that they are working on the basis of precise and relevant information and they know that, in case they fulfil the conditions and they want to move forward on this, they can then apply this investment clause in their budget for 2014.

Full remarks

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