1. The Commission shall select implementing partners other than the EIB Group in accordance with Article 154 of the Financial Regulation.
Implementing partners may form a group. An implementing partner may be a member of one or more groups.
For the EU compartment, the eligible counterparties shall have expressed their interest in relation to the portion of the EU guarantee referred to in Article 13(5).
For the Member State compartment, the Member State concerned may propose one or more counterparties as implementing partners from among those counterparties that have expressed their interest. The Member State concerned may also propose the EIB Group as an implementing partner and, at its own expense, may contract the EIB Group to provide the services listed in Article 11.
Where the Member State concerned does not propose an implementing partner, the Commission shall proceed in accordance with the third subparagraph of this paragraph and shall select as implementing partners eligible counterparties that are able to cover the financing and investment operations in the geographical areas concerned.
2. When selecting implementing partners, the Commission shall ensure that the portfolio of financial products under the InvestEU Fund meets the following objectives:
(a)
maximising the coverage of the objectives laid down in Article 3;
(b)
maximising the impact of the EU guarantee through the own resources committed by the implementing partner;
(c)
maximising, where appropriate, private investment;
(d)
promoting innovative financial and risk solutions to address market failures and suboptimal investment situations;
(e)
achieving geographical diversification via gradual allocation of the EU guarantee, and to allow for the financing of smaller projects;
(f)
providing sufficient risk diversification.
3. When selecting the implementing partners, the Commission shall also take into account:
(a)
the possible cost and remuneration to the Union budget;
(b)
the capacity of the implementing partner to implement thoroughly the requirements of Article 155(2) and (3) of the Financial Regulation related to tax avoidance, tax fraud, tax evasion, money laundering, terrorism financing and non-cooperative jurisdictions.
4. National promotional banks and institutions may be selected as implementing partners, provided that they fulfil the requirements laid down in this Article.