Online ISSN 2286-0266
Print ISSN 1223-0685
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Corina MURAFA
Academia de Studii Economice din Bucureşti
Assuming some of its institutional design features will be corrected, EFSI become a best case example of how to support the competitiveness and sustainability of the European energy sector, by incentivizing fruitful synergies between public and private resources. EFSI has been kicked-off rather hastily and without proper preparation, and has been expanded in its 2.0. stage, the InvestEU initiative, without a proper impact assessment and without the necessary corrections suggested not only by academics, but also by reputable public institutions, like the European Court of Auditors. Overall, I do not support the original criticisms to the Juncker Plan that the EFSI multiplier promise is nothing but creative accounting, but neither the overly optimistic conclusion of both EIB and the Commission that it fully achieved its objectives. EFSI did maintain its agility, overall, through incremental policy adaptations, creating the premises for InvestEU to do the same, in addition to improving its transparency performance in accordance to recommendations coming from integrity and governance specialists.

ŒCONOMICA no. 3/2019
Keywords: energy policy, energy sector, Energy Union, European Investment Bank, Juncker Plan, European Fund for Strategic Investments, project finance, financing instruments
JEL: F00, F21, F30, F50, F55, G15, G18, G23, G28, G32, H54, H81, L95, L97
The European Fund for Strategic Investments. Between Creative Accounting and Pragmatic Policy-Making