FIEC Newsletter – 16 Ιουλίου 2019

On 10th July, Vincent Piron, Vice-Chair of the FIEC Working Group “Infrastructure & Financing” addressed the potential negative impact of the latest Basel reforms on project financing in Europe with Director Martin Merlin, from DG FISMA.
According to the Basel agreement of December 2017, which is inspired by the US bank lending system, infrastructure projects are being considered as risky assets which require a very significant increase in capital from banks (x 2.8 for a motorway, for example).
This will impact the willingness of European banks to invest into infrastructure projects. Alternatively, they will pass these higher capital requirements onto their clients. Eventually, the negative socio-economic impact on our sector could be significant .
The European Commission stressed that it would look at the impact of these reforms on the real economy very carefully, before proposing a revision of the EU related rules (Capital Requirement Regulation) in 2020.

It is with great sadness that we have learned about the death of Ing. Giandomenico Ghella, President of Ghella SpA, who was Vice-President of FIEC and President of the Technical Commission during the period 2003-2004 and actively involved in our Italian member federation ANCE until the very last moment.Beside his highly recognised professional competences, in Italy and abroad, and his profound knowledge of the sector he was also a real gentleman. He will be sorely missed by everyone who had the good fortune to work with him.

We send our most sincere condolences to his family and friends on behalf of our President Kjetil Tonning, the members of our Steering Committee and colleagues across the EU.