The Investment Plan for Europe, the so-called "Juncker Plan", consists of three pillars:

Following the launch of the EU’s new Trade and Investment Strategy, the Joint Statement by Presidents Juncker and Tusk and New Zealand Prime Minister Key of 29 October 2015 and the Joint Statement by Presidents Juncker and Tusk and the Australian Prime Minister Turnbull of 15 November 2015, can the Commission give an update on its plans concerning future FTAs with Australia and New Zealand?

2. Stresses the importance of the investment plan drawn up by the Commission because it is the first step in balancing the insufficient volume of public and private investment in the Union, which poses a serious risk to attaining the targets set by the Europe 2020 strategy; stresses that the fall in investments that followed the economic crisis has been particularly marked in the least wealthy regions; recalls, however, that the Juncker plan represents only EUR 315 billion in potential investments over three years while, according to the Commission, the European Union has an investment gap of at least EUR 300 billion per year; insists ...[+++], therefore, on the need to restore additional room for manoeuvre for investment in the EU budget and in Member States’ budgets; stresses, that projects guaranteed by the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) should contribute to meeting EU policy objectives, comply with the objectives of cohesion policy as defined in Article 174 TFEU and respect the principles of additionality, economic viability and sound financial management; recalls, in this regard, that Member States’ financial contributions in the form of one-off measures to the EFSI to support dedicated investment platforms and national promotional banks and which benefit from the EU guarantee are covered by the full range of the existing rules of the Stability and Growth Pact;

2. Urges the Commission to make sustainability the core of any sound, future-oriented and crisis-solving economic policy and to give it substance in this and future work programmes via a dedicated heading focused on the comprehensive and rapid implementation of the 7th Environmental Action Programme and the preparations for a new EU Sustainable Development Strategy; considers that the projects selected by the guarantee fund underpinning the so-called ‘Juncker plan’ must respond to such priorities; emphasises that a new ambitious and comprehensive sustainable industrial strategy is needed as too little attention has been given to this c ...[+++]ritical policy area, especially as regards the circular economy package; insists that public investments must focus on energy transition, eco-innovative SMEs, research and education; is opposed to diverting already planned EU-programme funds, such as Horizon 2020 – Research and Innovation Funding, towards lesser quality or unsustainable projects;

24. Stresses in this connection the need for a favourable public-sector investment climate, especially given the impact of the new SEC2010 accounting standards on the investment capacity of certain public authorities; calls for European Central Bank’s decision-making to be adapted accordingly; draws attention to proposals to ensure active involvement of the Member States in implementing the Juncker Plan; calls on the Member States, when formulating their budgets, to give special attention to social investments such as education and lifelong learning, and to creating jobs and enhancing entrepreneurship; calls on the Commission to stud ...[+++]y the possibility of major budgetary flexibility within the rules of the economic governance framework in this regard, especially in times of severe economic and financial crisis;

What the Christian Democrat Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Mr Juncker called for in the run-up to the employment summit in 1997 also applies to the planned special summit in Lisbon.