EU Court of Auditors: Special report on the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI)

EFSI was created in 2015 by the European Commission and the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group. Its main goal was to tackle the lack of investment across EU countries in the wake of the 2007‑2008 financial crisis up to 2014, when total investment spending in the bloc fell by around 15 %, or about 430 billion compared to the peak that had been reached in 2007. EFSI provided €26 billion of EU budget guarantees and €7.5 billion of EIB funding for infrastructure, innovation, and small and medium-sized enterprises. It aimed to use these resources to mobilise €500 billion of additional investment in the real economy by the end of 2022.

The auditors examined the extent to which EFSI had driven additional investments, whether the estimates of the investments made were sound, and whether the Fund’s performance was well monitored and reported on. The lessons drawn can be used to improve the management of similar programmes, such as InvestEU. This is a follow-up to the ECA’s first audit of EFSI: in 2019, the auditors said the Fund’s effectiveness must be better substantiated, and called for action to make it a full success.

The report and press release will be published on the ECA’s website (eca.europa.eu) at 5.00 p.m. CET on Wednesday 19 March 2025. The ECA Member responsible for the report is Lefteris Christoforou.​

The ECA’s special reports set out the results of its audits of EU policies and programmes or management topics related to specific budgetary areas. The ECA selects and designs these audit tasks to be of maximum impact by considering the risks to performance or compliance, the level of income or spending involved, forthcoming developments and political and public interest.