2016-09-14wsj.com

``The European Commission, the European Union's executive arm, proposed doubling the duration and increasing the scope of the bloc's investment fund in addition to setting up financing for investment in Africa and other EU neighbors.

The bloc's investment fund should aim to reach a financial capacity of €500 billion ($561 billion) in investment by 2020--a steep increase from the fund's initial capacity of €315 billion--commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Wednesday.

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The European Fund for Strategic Investment is the centerpiece of Mr. Juncker's economic agenda. The fund aims to entice pension funds, insurance companies and other large investors to finance infrastructure projects across the 28-nation bloc.

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The fund is currently backed by €16 billion in guarantees from the EU budget and €5 billion from the European Investment Bank, the EU's long-term lending agency. The EU has hoped to leverage that initial €21 billion 15 times over to more than €300 billion, with cash coming from large investors that have been investing in low-risk assets because of Europe's gloomy growth outlook.

The commission also proposed the creation of a similar investment fund for Africa and other EU neighbors that would be able to attract at least €44 billion in investments, aimed partly at curbing the flood of migrants from the continent to Europe.



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