Member states’ representatives (Coreper) approved today the Council’s position (‘negotiating mandate’) on one of the Commission’s proposals to simplify EU rules and thus boost EU competitiveness. This proposal aims to increase the EU’s investment capacity to mobilise around €50 billion in additional public and private investments in support of certain EU policies, notably related to the Competitiveness Compass, the Clean Industrial Deal, defence industrial policy and military mobility. The proposed changes further seek to make it easier for Member States to contribute to the ‘Invest EU’ programme and simplify administrative requirements.
Simplification of existing legislation is indispensable for boosting EU competitiveness. In the turbulent times we are living, today’s agreement in the Council is a first step towards unlocking additional investment opportunities that will certainly strengthen our economic position in the global arena.
Adam Szłapka, Minister for the European Union of Poland
The proposal forms part of the ‘Omnibus’ packages adopted by the Commission at the end of February 2025 with a view to simplifying existing legislation in the field of sustainability and EU investments. This proposal amends the ‘Invest EU’ regulation to help mobilise around €50 billion of investments by increasing the size of the EU guarantee and facilitating the combined use of the ‘Invest EU’ guarantee with existing capacity available under three legacy programmes: the European Fund for Strategic Investment (EFSI), the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) debt instrument and the so-called ‘InnovFin debt facility’, an initiative launched by the EIB group in support of research and innovation. Moreover, the proposal increases the attractiveness of the ‘Invest EU’ member state compartment and reduces the administrative burden caused by reporting requirements, especially for SMEs.
Next steps
Following today’s approval of the Council’s negotiating mandate by Coreper, the presidency is enabled to enter interinstitutional negotiations (trilogues) with a view to reaching a provisional agreement with the European Parliament on this proposal.
Background
In October 2024, the European Council called on all EU institutions, Member States and stakeholders, as a matter of priority, to take work forward, notably in response to the challenges identified in the reports by Enrico Letta (‘Much more than a market’) and Mario Draghi (‘The future of European competitiveness’). The Budapest declaration of 8 November 2024 subsequently called for ‘launching a simplification revolution’, by ensuring a clear, simple and smart regulatory framework for businesses and drastically reducing administrative, regulatory and reporting burdens, in particular for SMEs. On 26 February 2025, as a follow-up to EU leaders’ call, the Commission put forward the above proposal, as one of two ‘Omnibus’ packages, aiming to simplify existing legislation in the field of EU investment programmes. On 20 March 2025, EU leaders urged the co-legislators to take work forward on the first two Omnibus packages as a matter of priority and with a high level of ambition, with a view to finalising them as soon as possible in 2025.
The proposal intends to improve the ‘Invest EU’ programme by increasing the EU guarantee by €2.5 billion (from €26.2 billion to €28.6 billion) and by enhancing the combination of available support from the EU budget with the ‘Invest EU’ programme and its three legacy programmes: the EFSI, the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) debt instrument and the so-called ‘InnovFin’ debt facility, an initiative launched by the EIB group in support of research and innovation. Each of the two measures is expected to mobilise €25 billion of additional public and private investments.
Furthermore, the proposal aims to increase the attractiveness of the ‘Invest EU’ member state compartment, which focuses on specific national priorities. The proposal also aims to reduce the administrative burden of implementing partners, financial intermediaries and final recipients, with an estimated cost saving of €350 million. In particular, the proposal revises the definition of SME and reduces the number of indicators on which implementing partners will need to report for small-size operations not exceeding €100,000. It also reduces the frequency of reporting obligations from implementing partners, going from semi-annual to annual reporting.