Tuba Şahin
18 July 2018•Update: 19 July 2018
By Tuba Sahin
ANKARA
The Investment Plan for Europe, also known as the Juncker Plan, is expected to mobilize $335 billion as additional investment across the EU.
This is more than the original goal of €315 billion set in 2015 when The European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) was launched, helping to close the investment gap left as a result of the financial and economic crisis, the EU commission said in a statement on Wednesday.
Jean-Claude Juncker, the head of the European Commission, said the EFSI was set to create over one million jobs and increase the bloc's GDP by 1 percent by 2020.
"We have financed projects which without the EFSI would not have been possible, and all without creating new debt: two thirds of the investment comes from the private sector," he said.
European Investment Bank (EIB) Group President Werner Hoyer said many people consider the Juncker Plan as a winner and there is no going back from it.
"We now have the key to making scarce public resources achieve more for Europe’s economy and for its citizens by crowding in private investment," Hoyer said.
