Regulation (EU) 2021/1229 on the public sector loan facility under the Just Transition Mechanism

Ce que fait l'acte

to provide for the public sector loan facility under the Just Transition Mechanism to support public investment in the territories most negatively affected by the climate transition. PROPOSED ACT: Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council. ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure on an equal footing with the Council. BACKGROUND: in order to help the most vulnerable regions to cope with the socio-economic effects of transition, the Commission proposed in January 2020 to establish a Just Transition Mechanism, amounting to EUR 100 billion and based on three pillars: The Committee on Budgets and the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs jointly adopted the report by Johan VAN OVERTVELDT (ECR, BE) and Henrike HAHN (Greens/EFA, DE) the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the public sector loan facility under the Just Transition Mechanism. The proposed Regulation seeks to provide for the ‘Public Sector Loan Facility’ under the Just Transition Mechanism to support public sector investments by combining grants financed from the Union budget with loans granted on preferential terms by financial partners such as the European Investment Bank (EIB). The committee recommended that the European Parliament’s position adopted at first reading under the ordinary legislative procedure should amend the Commission proposal as follows. The proposed general objective of the Facility is to contribute to the Union’s policy objectives, in particular the new Union’s 2030 targets for climate and energy and the transition towards a climate-neutral economy in the Union by 2050 at the latest, in line with the Union’s commitments under the Paris Agreement and Union’s objectives and responding to the need to strengthen competitiveness and ensuring that the transition reduces inequalities, creates a net employment effect together with the European Pillar of Social Rights and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The Facility shall have the specific objective of increasing public sector investments, which address the development needs of regions identified in the territorial just transition plans, by facilitating the financing of projects that do not generate a sufficient stream of own revenues to cover investment costs within the meaning of the additionality principle. Members included the definition of the ‘additionality principle’ to mean ‘ the support for projects that do not generate a sufficient stream of own revenues to cover investment costs and secure funding to the same extent or within the same timeframe without the element of grant support from the Union budget’. Members proposed that, without prejudice to additional resources allocated in the Union budget for the period 2021-2027, the grant component of support provided under this Facility, including the advisory support for the preparation, development, and implementation of projects, shall be financed from resources from the Union budget for an amount of EUR 1 760 000 000 in current prices. Higher amounts of technical and administrative assistance may be made…