The 2012-2013 pilot phase of the EU project bonds initiative which is aimed at mobilising up to €4.5 billion in private sector for financing key strategic infrastructure projects has been launched by adopting for the the Council a regulation. In addition, the Council has given to Spain an extra year to correct its deficit, i.e. until 2014.

Following an agreement reached with the European Parliament on 22 May, the Council adopted the regulation which launches the 2012-2013 pilot phase of the EU project bonds initiative aimed at mobilising up to €4.5 billion in private sector financing for key strategic infrastructure projects. In particular, the EU project bonds instrument will provide credit enhancement for projects in order to make it easier for their sponsors to attract private financing. In the last plenary session that took place in July, MEPs decided to give €230 million in guarantees to back the private issuance of "project bonds" for infrastructure projects in the EU.

Project bonds are private debt issued by the sponsor(s) of a project, either a private company or a special purpose vehicle (SPV) created by one or more companies to finance a specific project. The initiative will be entirely financed by the EU budget via redeployment within the envelopes of existing programmes in 2012 and 2013. Under the regulation, up to 200 million in 2012-2013 will be allocated for transport projects, up to €10 million for energy and up to €20 million for ICT and broadband projects. If successful, the pilot phase will be followed by an operational phase during 2014-2020 under the EU's "Connecting Europe" facility for transport, energy and ICTs.

On the other hand, the Council also issued a revised recommendation on measures to be taken by Spain to correct its government deficit, giving it an extra year to do so on account of adverse economic circumstances following the Eurogroup recommendation. The recommendation establishes headline deficit targets of 6.3% for 2012, 4.5% of GDP for 2013 and 2.8% of GDP for 2014, setting 2014 as the new deadline for bringing its deficit below the EU's 3% of GDP reference value.