14. 12.09:
New Fund for Energy, Climate Change and Infrastructure
A ‘'post-crisis'' pan-European infrastructure fund backed by an alliance of some of Europe's leading public financial institutions was unveiled on 4 December. Marguerite aims to offer capital of EUR1.5 billion to act as a catalyst for infrastructure investments implementing key EU policies in the areas of climate change, energy security, and trans-European networks (TENs).
The new fund, which includes EUR80 million in European Commission support, was initiated last year as part of the European Economic Recovery Plan's drive to reinforce Europe's long term competitiveness by combining EU policies and funds to help Member States bring forward investments in energy and priority infrastructure. The approach should serve as a model for the establishment of other similar funds in the EU wishing to combine a market-based principle of return to investors with the pursuit of public policy objectives.
The Fund will focus on greenfield investments within its target sectors: TENs energy or transport infrastructure, sustainable energy production, clean transport infrastructure, energy distribution and systems for hybrid transport (e.g. wind, solar), geothermal, biomass, biogas, hydro, and waste-to-energy projects.
