At a December 16, 2014 meeting held in Strasbourg, EU Commission policy makers termed it the number one initiative in their new “roadmap for getting Europe back to work, based on clear priorities […] to boost our economy” [1] In a January 9, 2015 meeting held in Riga to kick off Latvia's EU Council presidency, Latvian Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma insisted that, during its mandate, Latvia would focus on introducing the commission's €315bn investment plan "which testifies that we are committed to supporting our businesses".
[2] Even rich EU countries such as Germany and Luxembourg had for many years deliberately delayed or reduced infrastructure investments in order to limit public spending.
[3] There is thus an EU-wide need for better transport links, power grid connections, super-fast broadband networks, as well as school and hospital improvements [4] The adoption of the European Commission’s Investment Plan coincides with the emergence of a new, more progressive policy consensus propitious to long-term investments in modern transportation, energy and other socially-beneficial assets after seven consecutive years of low to mediocre growth that followed the start of the Great Recession.
[6] Some experts have called for a cautious, cost-conscious approach to alleviate legitimate fears by European taxpayers that this could turn out to be yet another expensive EU scheme marred by administrative inefficiencies and political preferentialism for local or national ‘pet projects,’ potentially causing an oversupply of certain types of infrastructure projects in countries or regions that don’t really need them: “EU policy makers, public lenders and development banks will need to assess thoroughly the tangible interest of future infrastructure investments one project at a time, an effort for which prospective pension and insurance co-investors from sophisticated jurisdictions such as Alberta, California, Ontario, Switzerland and the UK can play a decisive part.” [7] In August 2018, the investments triggered by the 'Juncker plan' are said to amount to €335bn,[8] exceeding the objective by $20bn.
For example, Ericsson admitted to long-term violations of the FCPA, bribery, and falsified books and records; Renfe Operadora was fined 15.1 million euros for abuse of power; BBVA was accused of corruption.