The European Commission would like to encourage investments on the part of the private sector into the economy of all EU countries.

This will be one of the main goals of the Investment plan for Europe, as stated by the European Commissioner for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness, Jyrki Katainen.

He is attending the conference Investment Encouragement for Europe, held in Sofia, as a part of his all-European tour on clarification of the union's investment policies for encouragement of small and medium enterprises.

''Currently, investors have better conditions for investing their money in the US as opposed to Europe and the purpose of the EU will be to change that,'' Katainen noted.

He added that the European Fund for Strategic Investments will be working in collaboration with the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Commission. Katainen explained that the fund will provide a capacity for risk adaptation with regards to economically viable projects.

''If you are an investor and have a good idea, you can go directly to the European Investment Bank, instead of going through the local governments,'' the commissioner noted.

In his words, SME funding will be executed through the autonomous governments within the EU and they will determine the sectors that need the assistance the most, as well as the most suitable mechanisms for the program. Furthermore, investment committes, consisting of working experts in the fields, will be established in each EU member state to evaluate the projects values and to provide advice for the more effective execution of the funding plan.

Bulgaria's Economic Minister Bozhidar Lukarski further explained that financing through the program in Bulgaria will be conducted mostly in three main directions: energy effectiveness, improvement of production capacities and innovations. Furthermore, all applications could now be submitted electronically.

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