Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Negotiation is under way on the European Fund for Strategic Investment, which is the context of the issue raised by the Deputy. The Department of Finance is leading those negotiations for Ireland. The Council's negotiating position on the draft European Fund for Strategic Investment regulation was agreed at ECOFIN in March this year. A key element of this position was that the governance arrangements for this fund should not be overly prescriptive regarding the European Investment Bank scope to manage the fund. Ireland supports the Council position.

The European Parliament agreed its negotiation position on the regulation this week. The European Parliament took a different approach to the Council and called for the ring-fencing of funding for energy efficiency. This is a matter for the Parliament and the Government's position remains aligned with that of the Council, as agreed last month. Officials from this Department are in communication with the European Commission as they work to establish how best to fund sustainable energy projects, including energy efficiency, from the European Fund for Strategic Investment and other financial instruments. This work is in its early stages.

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