Aufbruch in ein neues Kapitel bei der Angleichung der Lebensbedingungen in Europa

All in all, EU Cohesion policy has been a success. It has facilitated growth and jobs in less developed areas, contributing to their prosperity. However, convergence has slowed down significantly during the crisis. This puts even more pressure on safeguarding that cohesion policy generates optimal results to ensure lasting economic and social cohesion. Room for improvement has been identified. The delivery mechanisms can be improved; its territorial dimension strengthened; and its focus more firmly directed at supporting a resource-efficient economy, research, development and innovation.Even more important, the economic crisis in the EU has underscored the need for creating pan-European institutions, like the banking union, to complete the integration of financial markets. The recent substantial reforms of the EU’s economic architecture are aimed at creating an unprecedented level of integration that will allow private capital to flow more easily and more responsibly to the most productive and growth-enhancing investments in convergence regions. The unleashing of these market forces, combined with a reformed cohesion policy to efficiently address market failures where they exist, carries the potential to initiate a new success story in the convergence of living conditions in the EU.The EIB is committed to play an important role in this effort. It has already integrated the new smart and sustainable orientations of the Structural Funds and will strive to facilitate better alignment between its sector and regional objectives. Expanding and deepening the nature and scope of financial and non-financial instruments developed jointly with the European Commission will further improve the leverage effect of EU funding and help attract private investors.