 |  |  |
|  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |
The Research Programme and Objectives
The Research Programme on The History of European Infrastructure Finance
Faced with large fiscal deficits, many European governments are looking to forms of public private partnership (PPP) contracts as the way to deliver on promises to improve infrastructure providing public services whilst avoiding excessive public sector debt. In many countries, privatisation and regulation models have been applied to network industries for several years.
Long-term cycles of public and private ownership and investment in infrastructure can be seen across different European nations. Concession contracts can be traced back to the ancient Greeks, were widely used by the Romans, and given a modern form under the Napoleonic code. Most 18th and 19th century infrastructure (canals, railways, telegraphs, water supply, gas, electricity) was built using private capital, frequently with explicit or implicit public subsidies or other support. Many were subsequently taken into public ownership. The history of different infrastructure services illustrates how the nexus between technological innovation, infrastructure services and finance may develop in a variety of contexts. The debates at the time, alternative solutions and the long-term outcomes for the various actors involved, all have a resonance today.
To the EIBURS research call on the topic of The History of European Infrastructure Finance
The Research Objectives of the Research Partnership
The research partners objectives within the EIBURS Programme are focused on the questions of how infrastructure provisioning and financing have been realised in different time periods across diverse regions and under different financial, socio-economic and regulatory regimes in the European context. Over the long-term, the finance of infrastructure has been organised in many different ways from being financed by fully private to fully public Institutions. Though no country is completely alike, there have been considerable commonalities across the European context. The research aims at collecting and analysing data on infrastructure finance over the long-term and on this basis identify phases in finance infrastructure across sectors, countries, financial as well as other regulatory and socio-economic institutions. This goes along with the analyses of the outcomes of public engagement in public infrastructure provisioning in Europe as well as with an identification and exploration of European best practice examples for infrastructure financing that provide lessons learnt for contemporary policy debates.
Thus, the activities of the research project aim at:
- Developing an interdisciplinary structured database concept.
- Creating a deeper understanding of mechanisms, instruments and infrastructure sector specifics which are of interest to infrastructure finance, policies and regulation.
- Exchange of knowledge on infrastructure finance between the different researchers professions with the objective to draw recommendations for contemporary issues in infrastructure finance.
- Widening the interest and knowledge on infrastructure investments in the European context.
- Integrating different European approaches to infrastructure financing and building up a common knowledge and understanding upon practical and theoretical implications of infrastructure finance.