Fund to bolster investment in Europe to launch in SeptJanuary 30, 2015 - 16:54 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - A fund to bolster investment in Europe should be up and running by September, an EU official said on Friday, Jan 30, outlining the timetable for a highly leveraged scheme to bolster growth in a moribund EU economy, Reuters reported. The European Fund for Strategic Investments, which can invest in projects from infrastructure building to expansion of small businesses, is the European Union's flagship scheme to help address slack growth. Jyrki Katainen, Vice President of the European Commission responsible for jobs and growth, told journalists that its set-up could be finalized by European Union leaders in June, with a start date some months later. "I expect that the fund itself will be up and running, let's say, in September," he said, on a whistle-stop tour of Europe to drum up investor and government interest in the scheme. Katainen said, however, that it was unclear which governments would invest money in the scheme, intended to be a 315-billion-euro ($358 billion) investment vehicle based on modest financial guarantees given by states. "There has been quite a lot of interest toward the fund but nothing has been realized yet," he told journalists. "We built the fund so that it can operate even without any additional commitments. We don't have any expectations." The late start-date may disappoint some. European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, for example, recently urged EU leaders to speed up the project. The dire economic outlook prompted Draghi last week to unveil last week a roughly 1-trillion-euro plan to print fresh money, chiefly to buy government bonds. He has told governments to do their part, by pursuing economic reforms. But finding agreement among the 19 countries in the eurozone, from Germany to Greece, is difficult. This also slows progress on broader EU schemes such as the joint investment fund. Top stories Yerevan has dismissed Turkey’s demand to shut down the Armenian nuclear power plant as “inappropriate”. Armenia will loan 2.9 billion drams to Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh), according to a draft government decision. The Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan has “strongly condemned” Armenia’s decision. Kerobyan has said that for the first time in the history of Armenia, the volume of foreign direct investments amounted to about $1 billion. Partner news | European Parliament to discuss repression in Azerbaijan The European Parliament will discuss repression of civil society in Azerbaijan on April 24 PACE wants concessions from Azerbaijan to accept Baku back A PACE co-rapporteur said that Azerbaijani authorities must make certain concessions so that the country can return to PACE. Cyprus parliament honors Armenian genocide victims Acting House President Zacharias Koulias noted that April 24 marks the “black anniversary” of the Armenian genocide. Armenia PM, France envoy discuss regional matters Issues related to the consistent development of Armenia-France cooperation were discussed. |