Mr. John Hogan:

The Deputy is correct in regard to the level to which the figures have fallen, as indicated in my opening statement. The Commission estimates that the drop in investment will be approximately 15% as compared with 2007. The incoming Commission was very focused on how to get investment moving again in Europe and at looking at new and innovative ways of doing this. What we see here is an attempt to do it on a number of different levels, including through the putting in place, through the ESFI, of a fund, which as the Deputy rightly says, can be leveraged up. I will ask Mr. Petris to comment later on the mechanics of that.

The Commission also wanted to find a mechanism by which private finance could be encouraged to invest in the future of Europe. It is seeking to facilitate this through making available this project pipeline to enable investors to get a real picture of large-scale projects at a European level, which by virtue of the fact that there may not be sufficient finance available through traditional means, may be open for new and innovative forms of financing. These are projects in which the European authorities were prepared to invest, take a first-loss piece in or guarantee during the initial phase of the investment and in respect of which they are now seeking to unlock private sector investment. The building blocks to allow this are being put in place. Mr. Petris will speak a little now about the transformation of the €8 billion from the EU budget and the €5 billion from the EIB.