A European fund for economic revival in crisis countries

Publishing date: 09 February 2011
Authors: Benedicta Marzinotto

Significant volumes of Structural and Cohesion Funds have been pre-allocated but remain undisbursed or uncommitted. In Portugal, unused funds amount to 9.3 percent of GDP, in Greece close to 7 percent, and in central and eastern European countries about 15 percent. These funds should be part of a temporary European Fund for Economic Revival (EFER) for 2011-13, which would promote economic growth in crisis-hit countries and facilitate structural reforms.

For countries under financial assistance in particular, the European Commission has a role to play in identifying the ‘right’ objectives for which the funds should be used. The Commission could decide to manage the funds directly with the support of an executive agency.

Greater efforts should be made to exploit synergies between EU grants and European Investment Bank loans, allowing EIB loans to finance the total costs of a project or programme in small countries, and leveraging the whole EU budget to attract private investment.

About the authors

Benedicta Marzinotto

Benedicta Marzinotto was a Resident Fellow at Bruegel from 2010 to 2013. She is now with the European Commission as a Policy Analyst – Economist, Labour market reforms, at DG ECFIN.

She is also a Lecturer in Political Economy at the University of Udine and Visiting Professor at the College of Europe (Natolin Campus).

Her research for Bruegel focused on EU macroeconomic developments, EU Institutions, finance and growth. More precisely, she was working on the macroeconomics of the recent crisis, the competitiveness debate (macro and micro-approach), the role of the EU budget in the crisis and the impact of financial regulation on economic growth.

From 2004 to 2009, Benedicta was a Research Fellow in the International Economics Programme at Chatham House. She also has experience as a freelance political economic analyst. She has held visiting positions at the Free University of Berlin and at the University of Auckland.

Benedicta holds a MSc and PhD in European Political Economy from the London School of Economics. Her research interests include: EU macroeconomics, EU economic governance, varieties of capitalism, and labour markets institutions.

She is fluent in Italian, English and German.

Theme: Macroeconomic policy and governance
Language: English

About the authors

Benedicta Marzinotto

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