The InvestEU programme also provides for an opportunity to Member States to add funds to the EU guarantee’s provisioning by voluntarily channelling a part of their Cohesion Policy Funds or of their RRF funds to the Member States compartment for each policy area.
The InvestEU Programme will support 4 main policy areas:
- Sustainable infrastructure
- Research, innovation and digitisation
- Small and medium-sized businesses and
- Social investment and skills
These policy areas can generate investments under 2 compartments.
- An EU compartment, with a main focus on EU policy priorities and investments with EU value added.
- A Member State compartment, with a main focus on specific national priorities. EU countries have the possibility to contribute a part of their shared management funds to the InvestEU Fund, when setting up a “Member State compartment”. At the beginning of the programming period the Member States can choose to contribute up to 2% of their shared management fund allocation via their Partnership Agreements. If the Member States do not make use of this possibility, as of 1.01.2023 they can still contribute to InvestEU up to 3% of their shared management fund allocation via programme modification. With this voluntary contribution, EU countries can benefit from the EU guarantee's high credit rating, giving national and regional investments more firepower, while cutting red tape.
Under the Member State compartment, loans, guarantees or equity investments can be offered as a complement to other public and private investments.
For the EU compartment, the Commission signs specific guarantee agreements with the selected implementing partners. This includes the EIB Group for 75% of the EU guarantee and international financing institutions and national promotional banks for the remaining 25%.
For the Member State compartment to be activated, the EU country needs first to indicate their intention in a programming document. A partnership agreement and or a programme amendment. The Commission must then sign a ‘contribution agreement’ with the EU country concerned. This document sets out details of the financing and implementation, including
- the Member State strategy (products used, the targeted multiplier, etc.)
- the implementing partners proposed by the national authorities
- possible combinations with the EU compartment
Furthermore, EU countries can use the Member State compartment of InvestEU as a tool to implement their recovery and resilience plans under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), if they so wish.
Through their ‘compartment’, EU countries would complement the EU guarantee with a voluntary contribution of a part of their shared management funds. This means that €26.2 billion guarantee available under the EU compartment is supplemented by the budget of a Member State compartment. This increases the risk-bearing capacity for implementing partners. This budget should contribute to the delivery of the policy objectives identified by the EU country under shared management.
Depending on an EU country’s national investment priorities, the Member State compartment could offer
- Financial products and advisory initiatives currently being prepared for the EU compartment by the Commission in consultation with potential implementing partners
- Tailor-made products that address very specific national needs
- Products combining the EU guarantee under the Member State compartment with the EU compartment
- Member States can on a voluntary basis use the InvestEU Fund and the InvestEU Advisory Hub as a tool to implement part of their Recovery and Resilience Plans in line with the RRF objectives
The multiplier expected under the EU compartment is €11.4 of total investment generated for every euro of the EU budgetary guarantee. The multiplier under the Member State compartment may be lower or higher, depending on the level of risk of the projects involved and the policy objectives financed.