EU investment plan may be hard to realize

Before he officially took office, the European Commission's new President Jean-Claude Juncker announced his intention to create jobs and inject new life into the stagnant European economy by injecting an additional 300 billion euros ($374.25 billion) over three years, beginning 2015.

Nearly one month into his new job, and he has unveiled some details of his plan. The investment budget for the three years has now been increased to 315 billion euros.

At first glance, such a big sum may seem a boon for Europeans eagerly looking for signs of new jobs being created. But on carefully reading the plan, many are likely to feel disappointed, not least because of the policy difficulties that need to be overcome to realize it.

The 315 billion euros is not fiscal or public investment. The European Commission has merely earmarked 21 billion euros of public money for the plan, 16 billion euros from the EU budget and 5 billion euros from the European Investment Bank.

Instead, Juncker is trying to act as a magician pulling a money tree out of his hat by leveraging private investment to generate the remaining amount.

Although a detailed project list is still in the pipeline, Juncker says additional investment will target infrastructure, notably broadband and energy networks, as well as transport infrastructure in industrial centers. It will also focus on education, research and innovation; and renewable energy and energy efficiency through viable projects with a real added value for the European social market economy.

All well and good - if it happens.