Financing the European Energy Infrastructure of the Future

Europe is in need of massive infrastructure investments. Only in the energy sector, EUR 1.1 trillion will be needed by 2020 to finance an infrastructure able to match future demand for energy, to ensure security of supply and to comply with the decarbonisation targets. However, the EU infrastructure-funding model is congested by a mix of financial, regulatory and institutional constrains. Given the crucial role played by energy infrastructure in an economic system, this bottleneck could seriously undermine the recovery of the EU economy and its future prospects of growth. For this reason, it is necessary and urgent to find new ways to promote private sector financing of energy infrastructure projects, through innovative tools such as the Connecting Europe Facility and the Europe 2020 Project Bond Initiative.