Moving the first steps towards an “European Infrastructure Union”

Edoardo Reviglio Chief economist in Cassa Depositi e Prestiti The Juncker Plan for investment in Europe will allow a better convergence between State members economies. The Plan offers better flexibility as the State is not anymore the major financier of infrastructure. The new framework designed by the Juncker Commission represents a shift in the economic (investment) policy of the EU.  It is both a vision, a model and a catalyzer for national reforms. It represents also the beginning of a change of paradigm in the European convergence model which dominated the EU in last thirty years. For once let’s try to be optimistic. I will try to say why. Alongside with the two Communications on Flexibility and on State Aid Modernization, the general framework has been partially revised. New principles have been introduced. The first is the principle of fiscal flexibility – the “investment clause“,  for the first time, contains