"THE JUNCKER PLAN" Inaugural conference of the Long Term Investment and Reindustrialisation EP Intergroup #Invest4Future 13 APRIL 2015 – 18:00-18.10 A.M EUROPEAN COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS Keynote speech by Markku Markkula President of the European Committee of the Regions EN -1- Dear Mr. Dominique RIQUET, Chairman of the Long Term Investment Intergroup Dear Mr. Jyrki KATAINEN, Vice-President for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness, European Commission Dear Members of the European Parliament, Ladies and gentlemen It is an honour for the EU's Committee of the Regions to host the first conference of the European Parliament Intergroup on Long Term Investment and Reindustrialisation As the former CoR rapporteur of an Opinion on the "Industrial Policy Package" I agree that long-term investment goes hand in hand with industrial policy. In industry we have:  80% of Europe’s exports  80% of private research and innovation  Nearly one in four private sector jobs In addition, every new job in manufacturing results in 0.5-2 jobs in other sectors. Industrial renaissance requires:  more effective financial instruments  better public and private integration, including venture capital,  innovative public procurement,  loans or guarantees with greater risk capacity  integration with digital technologies and online services The Investment Plan for Europe The topic that you have chosen for today's conference is very relevant for regions and cities. From our perspective public investment:  means stimulus for private investment 1 -2-  sets appropriate structural frame for a regional economy  is an essential instrument in regional innovation policy, especially in implementing region’s Smart Specialisation Strategy RIS3 and in creating new innovations. The EU's CoR will adopt its official position on the Investment Plan at the Plenary Session on Thursday (16 April) where an opinion from rapporteur Claude Gewerc will be discussed. In addition, we will adopt an opinion on the Capital Markets Union in June with the rapporteur Tadeusz Truskolaski. This should further remove barriers to investment and unlock private capital. The Committee of the Regions supports President Juncker's "Investment Plan for Europe". We stress that it should help to resolve the difficulties in financing and productive investment to tackle the European challenges and to overcome the current investment gap among Member States and their regions. As for the funding available, we insist that it should be complementary to cohesion policy and additional to existing EU funding instruments. Therefore, we plead for strong synergies between the new Investment Fund and the "Structural and Cohesion Funds" On the other hand, we see some room for manoeuvre for the regional and local authorities concerning the ESIF's governance and also in contributing to the "project pipeline". The CoR therefore proposes the creation of regionalised investment platforms, which are jointly managed by local and regional authorities and regional and national development banks. 2 -3- The role of the European Investment Bank is also fundamental to the support from European action on the ground. For this reason, the CoR and the EIB have launched an action plan to boost the delivery of the Juncker Plan and EU structural funds. We trust this good dialogue with the EIB will help to simplify procedures and speed up the implementation of quality EU projects that benefit both citizens and local businesses. To conclude, I have one additional key message and one statement. My message is that we need new innovative combinations of investments such as the ones in which innovation hubs creating favorable conditions for start-ups are integrated to the more traditional investments. And my statement is that we very much welcome this European Parliament intergroup on the Long Term Investment and Reindustrialisation. Today's kick-off is excellent news for European regions and cities and we, the CoR's local and regional politicians, are ready to join forces with members of the European Parliament, the federations and the stakeholders representing financial institutions and private companies to ensure Europe returns to growth. May I also take this opportunity to invite you a conference entitled “An Investment Plan for Europe: joining forces", which will be held at the CoR this Wednesday (15 April) in cooperation with the EIB and the OECD. We also plan to continue our dialogue on this topic with President Juncker at our Plenary Session in June. I look forward to strong cooperation in this important field! 3