MNI BRIEF: Existing Funds For EU's Green Deal - Summit Draft

Funding for the European Union’s Green Deal Industry Plan should be confined to existing money, according to draft conclusions of a leaders’ summit starting in Brussels on Thursday, following pressure from Germany and the Netherlands to exclude new common funds.

“Existing EU funds should be deployed in a more flexible manner, and options to facilitate access to finance should be explored,” said the draft. Leaders will call for using the full potential of the European Investment Bank and while they will note that the Commission proposes a European Sovereignty Fund to support strategic investments, this will be a topic in long-term EU budget discussions in the summer.

The document backs calls for faster and simpler state aid approvals for green transition, though echoes language from the European Commission, Eurogroup and European Central Bank for aid to be “targeted, temporary and proportionate.”

Sources said earlier drafts contained a stronger call for “solidarity” with countries with limited fiscal room, but Germany and The Netherlands pushed back. Opponents to fresh funding cited EUR200 billion in unallocated NextGenerationEU post-pandemic recovery loans and argued that some national governments can borrow more cheaply than the EU. (See MNI: EU Green Deal Seen Tapping Existing Funds, Leveraged)