InvestEU & Other Funds

It is the challenge of public health policy makers and health promotion managers to develop investable proposals for improving health equity through accessing InvestEU and other investment funds. This e-guide provides initial ideas, contacts and tools on how that can be done.

InvestEU

InvestEU was originally announced in 2018 as the successor to the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI, or the ‘Juncker Plan’), which provided an EU budget guarantee to support investment and access to finance in the EU. InvestEU will bring together the European Fund for Strategic Investments and the 13 EU financial instruments that are currently available (2014-2020). InvestEU's suggested benefits are simplified and streamlined investment support and a single set of rules and procedures with one point of contact for advice. The main aim is to make EU funding simpler to access and more effective. InvestEU will run from 2021-2027.

 

InvestEU consists of the InvestEU Fund, the InvestEU Advisory Hub, the InvestEU Portal, and blending operations. It will mobilise public and private investment through an EU budget guarantee of €26.1 billion that will back the investment projects of financial partners such as the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group, national promotional banks and other private finance institutions, thereby increasing their risk-bearing capacity, achieving the economies of scale, and increasing the visibility of EU action.

What is InvestEU?

The InvestEU Programme aims to give an additional boost to investment, innovation, and job creation in Europe. New is the Social Investment and Skills window of InvestEU which shall facilitate projects implementing the European Pillar of Social Rights. In particular, actions under this window shall aim at upwards convergence, reducing inequalities, and increasing resilience and inclusiveness through promoting employment, social enterprises, social inclusion, improving citizens' health, well-being and overall quality of life and supporting a just transition to a low carbon economy.

The InvestEU Fund investments will come under four policy areas which represent important policy priorities for the Union and bring high EU added value. The windows and their budget guarantees are:

  1. Sustainable infrastructure - €9.9 billion
  2. Research, innovation and digitisation - €6.6 billion
  3. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) - €6.9 billion
  4. Social investment and skills - €2.8 billion 

 

The InvestEU Advisory Hub will provide technical support and assistance for the preparation, development, structuring and implementation of financed projects, including capacity building.

 

The InvestEU Portal will bring together investments and project promoters through an easily-accessible and user-friendly database.

 

InvestEU’s public guarantee is intended to help secure further investment from private and institutional investors The idea is that investors feel more secure in investing with the knowledge that money has been guaranteed to repay them if necessary. The guarantee will be provisioned at an average of 40%, meaning that €26,1 billion of the EU budget is set aside in case calls are made on the guarantee. InvestEU will also offer blending operations with grant funding. This blending will ensure complementarity with other EU funding programmes, notably for the European Structural Investment Funds under shared management or covered by the EU ETS Innovation Fund.  InvestEU Fund will be a market-based and demand-driven instrument. However, it will also be policy-focused. As a policy tool, by diversifying the sources of funding and promoting long term and sustainable finance, InvestEU will contribute to the strengthening of the Single Market while also contributing to the implementation of the European Green Deal, the European Green Deal Investment Plan, the Strategy on shaping Europe’s digital future, and the European Pillar of Social Rights. Financing and investment operations shall be screened to determine whether they have an environmental, climate or social impact.