(Brussels) “In many member states, the European structural and investments funds are a key source of public investment, and, since they are result-driven and focussed on key priorities, they remarkably help achieve growth and employment goals”. Jyrki Katainen, deputy president of the EU Commission, in charge of employment and growth, said this yesterday as he presented the first report on the EU funds that the member states of the European Union benefit from. According to the report, “in the last few months, investments have taken up lots of speed, and the implementation of such investments should move efficiently fast in 2017”. Subsidies had already been delivered, especially by the end of 2015, from the European structural and investments funds for 2014-2020 to 274 thousand companies; 2.7 million people had been helped find a job; and, also according to the EU report, the biodiversity of 11 million hectares of farmland had been improved, and a million EU-funded projects, worth nearly 60 billion euros overall, had been selected. “This figure has doubled up within nine months, and in Autumn 2016 nearly 130 billion euros (20% of the total worth of such funds) had been invested in small companies, research, broadband, energy efficiency and thousands of other projects focussed on the key priorities of the EU growth and employment strategy”.