EU fund overhyped, auditors find

The EU’s fund for helping to finance risky ventures, including R&D projects, is working but not as well as has been claimed, according to the European Court of Auditors.

The European Fund for Strategic Investments—which was set up in 2015 to encourage investment by national and private banks—has “financed many investment projects that could not otherwise have taken place”, the auditors said in a report published on 29 January.

But the auditors also found that “part of the finance went to projects that could have used other sources of public or private finance” and that “estimates of additional investment attracted by Efsi were sometimes overstated”.