Promoting investment in sustainable urban development with JESSICA: Outcomes of a new EU policy initiative

Between 2007 and 2015, the European Commission invested e1.846 billion in a new policy initiative called JESSICA (Joint European Support for Sustainable Investment in City Areas). Since European cities in particular have perceived a shortage of investment dedicated to urban regeneration projects, JESSICA will finance more than 2000 higher risk projects through Urban Development Funds as a financial intermediary in order to create economic stimulus. Moreover, replacing traditional grant funding by revolving financial instruments (loans, guarantees and equity capital) is a central part of the ongoing reform of EU cohesion policy. The special challenge of JESSICA is to combine these financial engineering instruments with integrated urban planning issues in a sustainable fund model. However, it is not yet clear whether this new policy instrument is as effective as European decision-makers believe, because up to now there has been no evaluation available on how successful JESSICA has been in achieving its ambitious objectives. Our empirical analysis is the first one to cover the impact of this innovative EU initiative in all 28 EU member states by making outcomes of the policy change measurable in monetary terms. Since revolving financial engineering instruments are a central part of the Europe2020 strategy, we derive key success factors for sustainable urban finance and give recommendations to adjust the policy instrument in the current programming period as part of the ongoing process of a reformed EU cohesion policy. 在2007年至2015年期间，欧盟委员会投资了 18.46亿欧元，用于名为JESSICA的新政策举措（欧 洲联合支持城市地区可持续投资）。由于欧洲城市尤其感觉到城市改造项目的投资不足， JESSICA将通过城市发展基金作为金融中介机构，资助超过2000个较高风险项目，以创造经济刺 激。此外，用循环金融工具（贷款、担保和股本）取代传统的赠款资金，这是欧盟凝聚政策正 在进行的改革的核心部分。JESSICA的特殊挑战是，通过可持续基金模式，将这些金融工程工具 与城市综合规划问题结合起来。然而，目前尚不清楚这一新政策工具是否与欧洲决策者所认为 的一样有效，因为迄今为止尚未评估JESSICA在实现其雄心勃勃的目标方面的成功程度。通过使 政策变化的结果以货币形式可测量，我们的实证分析首次了涵盖这一创新的欧盟倡议对所有28 个欧盟成员国的影响。由于循环金融工程手段是欧洲2020年战略的核心部分，我们得出了可持 续城市融资的关键成功因素，并提出了在目前规划阶段调整政策工具的建议，将其作为正在进 行的改革后的欧盟凝聚政策进程的一部分。