As Grandmother used to say, if it's not one tham ding it's another. Coming up short by a half trillion USD equivalent, per year, is starting to be real money.
From Bloomberg, January 23:
- Gap seen with digital and climate transitions, resilience aims
- Spending programs tend to be sporadic, Bruegel researchers say
European Union countries must collectively ramp up annual investment by at least €481 billion ($524 billion) for the rest of this decade if they want to achieve their key goals, according to Brussels-based researchers.
That tally of the shortfall in spending plans for managing climate and digital transitions and building resilience through 2030 was the centerpiece of a report by Bruegel released on Wednesday.
“Closing this gap, which is necessary if the EU is to achieve its strategic objectives, will rely on the efficient use of public resources and on mobilizing private investment,” authors Maria Demertzis, David Pinkus and Nina Ruer wrote.
Bruegel is publishing the report just as the EU executive unveils its economic security proposal — an effort to reshape itself into a global power that can leverage its massive single market to rebuff coercive actions from the likes of Beijing, Moscow and even Washington.
“There is a lack of continuity in the way that the EU has pursued investments,” the researchers wrote. “Programs have been finite and sporadic, with different sources of funding and overlapping objectives.”
The authors propose the creation of “a dedicated and permanent fund for European Strategic Investments,” which would be paid for initially by money in a “partly re-purposed” EU budget.
The Luxembourg-based European Investment Bank “would be the natural manager of such a fund,” they suggest....
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Bloomberg which is usually pretty good about linking to original sources seems not to have.
Here's "Accelerating strategic investment in the European Union beyond 2026" at Bruegel.
