NextGenerationEU: European Commission gearing up for issuing €250 billion of NextGenerationEU green bonds
lundi 13 septembre 2021 Commission Européenne Visiter le site sourceBrussels, 7 September 2021
The European Commission has today adopted an independently evaluated Green Bond framework, thus taking a step forward towards the issuance of up to €250 billion green bonds, or 30% of NextGenerationEU's total issuance. The framework provides investors in these bonds with confidence that the funds mobilised will be allocated to green projects and that the Commission will report on its environmental impact. Now that the framework has been adopted, the Commission will soon proceed with the first green bond issuance in the month of October, subject to market conditions. Commissioner in charge of Budget and Administration, Johannes Hahn, said: ”The EU's intention to issue up to €250 billion in green bonds between now and end-2026 will make us the largest green bond issuer in the world. This is also an expression of our commitment to sustainability and places sustainable finance at the forefront of the EU's recovery effort”. As announced earlier this year, the Commission has also reviewed its plan for funding the recovery in 2021 and confirmed its intention to issue a total of around €80 billion of long-term bonds this year, to be topped up by tens of billions of euros of short-term EU-Bills. The Commission will be offering the EU-Bills exclusively via auctions, with its auctioning programme due to start on 15 September. The Commission will be organising typically two auctions per month for EU-Bills, on the first and third Wednesday of the month. The auctioning programme will also be used for bonds, in addition to syndications. Under its issuance calendar released today, the Commission in general will be holding one auction and one syndication per month for its bonds. Commissioner Johannes Hahn added: “The confirmation of our original funding plan for 2021 is a sign of the excellent planning and preparatory work done so far. The launch of our auctioning platform is another piece of great news, which will further raise the attractiveness of EU borrowing and have a lasting impact on the EU capital markets.”