Il Fondo europeo per gli investimenti strategici: statuto giuridico, profili istituzionali e funzionamento

The article analyses the European Fund for Strategic Investments, from an institutional and material perspective. It highlights its hybrid and sui generis nature, and it defines its legal status as an auxiliary body of the European Investment Bank. To this end, the article first sheds light on the functioning of the Fund and on the distribution of competences between its organs. The article then focuses on the political, hierarchical and jurisdictional control systems on the EFSI, and on the institutional corollaries stemming from such a control, also with regards to the legitimacy of the Fund vis-à-vis primary law. Third, the article singles out the main legal obstacles to the smooth functioning of the EFSI, by looking more particularly to the treaty provisions on state aid and budgetary policy coordination. Finally, the article concludes by undertaking a preliminary assessment of the costs and benefits of the EFSI and by emphasising the consistency between the policy strategy behind the establishment of the Fund and the wider institutional development trends within the EU legal order.