Over the recent years the Project Finance community and the procuring authorities in Europe have been confronted with a gradually more severe interpretation by Eurostat of the structural requirements necessary to make infrastructure project debt ‘off-balance’ for the procuring authorities. ESA-95 was replaced last year by ESA-2010 and Eurostat also issued yet a number of clarification notes but this didn’t create always more clarity. Procuring authorities sometimes tended to hesitate more and those changes gave rise to a debate in which many questions are raised such as if the Eurostat requirements make the DBFM-procurement route now too expensive, what is the cost/benefit of this type of procurement and should the off-balance considerations be seen as an objective on itself or as a side effect to a procurement scheme that has proven to have its own merits.
In this seminar we want to listen to how the public sector in our neighbouring countries France and the Netherlands is looking to those issues. We will also take a closer but pragmatic look to the impact of the new ESA-2010 rules on DBFM-contracts.
15.30 Registration
16.00 Welcome and Introduction by Host
Franky De Wispelaere, Head of Infrastructure Project Finance EMEA – BNP Paribas
16.15 The Dutch Practice with DBFMO. Did the New ESA 2010 Rules Changed their View on the Subject?
Erik Jan Snik, Dutch Ministry of Finance, Department of Public Private Partnership, Coordinator DBFMO programme
16.45 France, The Country that is Using Concession Contracts since the 19th Century. Their Current View on DBFM / DBFMO also in Light of the New ESA 2010 Rules
Salim Bensmail, Director Unit for Private-Public Partnership, Directorate-General of the French Treasury
17.15 Is DBFM Becoming less Attractive now that ESA 2010 is Applicable?
Prof dr Steven Van Garsse, General Manager Flemish Knowledge Centre for PPP, professor at the Antwerp University
17.45 Panel discussion
Moderator: Franky De Wispelaere, Head of Infrastructure Project Finance EMEA – BNP Paribas
Erik Jan Snik, Dutch Ministry of Finance, Department of Public Private Partnership, Coordinator DBFMO programme
Salim Bensmail, Director Unit for Private-Public Partnership, Directorate-General of the French Treasury.
18.15 Closing Remarks
Benoît Theys, Council Member, IPFA Belgium
18.30 Networking Drinks Reception kindly Hosted by BNPParibas
For more information, please contact Laura Cafora e: lcafora@ipfa.org