ANNEX

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS OF THE EUROPEAN INVESTMENT PROJECT PORTAL (EIPP)

1.   GENERAL DESCRIPTION

The EIPP, created pursuant to Article 15 of Regulation (EU) 2015/1017, is a publicly available web portal of investment projects which acts as a platform to promote projects to potential investors worldwide. EIPP's main goal is to catalyse and accelerate the development and the fruition of investment projects in the Union, and through this, to contribute to higher employment and economic growth. The publication of a project on the EIPP does not amount to endorsement of such project by the Commission or by the EIB and is not a condition to receive financing support by the Union or the EIB.

The EIPP's main components are:

The EIPP will also include a non-public module for project processing.

Projects in the EIPP are grouped in sectors derived from the objectives and categories of Article 9(2) of Regulation (EU) 2015/1017.

2.   MANAGEMENT OF THE EIPP AND RELATIONS WITH PROJECT PROMOTERS, WEBSITE USERS AND PROVIDERS OF SIMILAR SERVICES

The EIPP is managed by the Commission. Member States may contribute to its management. The EIPP content is generated by project promoters, i.e. by private and public legal entities.

Participation of project promoters and other registered website users in the EIPP is subject to their acceptance of the EIPP Terms and Conditions which aim at ensuring the quality of published information received from project promoters while making clear that the Commission does not guarantee the accuracy of the information published and cannot be held liable for any claims based on the publication of the project.

A disclaimer should alert the website users that the Commission cannot guarantee the accuracy of the information published and that potential investors have to carry out their own usual due diligence, including on financial aspects and any other aspect relevant for their decision on whether to invest in a project. The Commission may decide to remove a project from the EIPP after three years of its initial publication.

The EIPP may cooperate with other providers of similar services at national or international level aimed at stimulating or facilitating investment activity.

3.   PROJECT SCREENING

A project screening shall be performed by the services of the Commission on the basis of the admission criteria set out in Article 2 of this Decision. The Commission shall have a broad discretion when performing the project screening and assessing whether or not to include a project in the EIPP. The screening of compatibility with the law of the relevant Member State and the screening of potential risks for this Member State shall be performed on the basis of information provided by the Member State, where available. Some technical aspects of the project screening and validation, such as the verification of project promoters' identity, may be outsourced to third parties.

The Member States will be invited to appoint one or more contact points and to define their contribution for the purposes of the screening. The role of the EIB in promoting the EIPP will be, where appropriate, set out in a service level agreement.

4.   PROCESSING FEE

In order to claim an exemption from the payment of the application processing fee in accordance with the second or third paragraph of Article 3 of this Decision, the project application shall be accompanied either by a project promoter's self-declaration of the public project promoter status at the time of the submission of the application, or by a written confirmation of the project's support from the relevant public authority. Standardised forms will be available from the EIPP for this purpose.

Cases which are deemed to justify exemption from the payment of the application processing fee, in accordance with the fourth paragraph of Article 3 of this Decision, shall include projects which benefit from the support of a programme of the Union or projects included, inter-alia, in the list of projects of common interest referred to in Regulation (EU) No 347/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council (1) or projects compatible with the guidelines for the development of the trans-European transport network referred to in Regulation (EU) No 1315/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council (2), as confirmed by the relevant Commission services.

(1)  Regulation (EU) No 347/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2013 on guidelines for trans-European energy infrastructure and repealing Decision No 1364/2006/EC and amending Regulations (EC) No 713/2009, (EC) No 714/2009 and (EC) No 715/2009 (OJ L 115, 25.4.2013, p. 39).

(2)  Regulation (EU) No 1315/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2013 on Union guidelines for the development of the trans-European transport network and repealing Decision No 661/2010/EU (OJ L 348, 20.12.2013, p. 1).