The European Investment Bank (EIB) said Monday private investors felt discouraged from putting money into major EU infrastructure projects, mainly due to too much red tape and lack of budgetary reform in the bloc.

Under a program hammered out by the European Commission, the bank is currently providing seed capital for the EU's new 315-billion-euro ($356-billion) investment fund to provide loans for higher-risk strategic projects such as energy networks and broadband Internet, with the fund to be officially launched in September.

But EIB chief Werner Hoyer (pictured) made it clear that most of the money to overcome the current investment gap in the bloc had to come from private capital.

No plain sailing

Hoyer said seed capital wouldn't be enough if the plans were not accompanied by ambitious reform processes that would encourage private investment.

The EIB has started compiling a list of some 2,000 potential projects worth more than 1.3 trillion euros that could be developed over the next three years. The emphasis is on high-quality and shorter-term projects.

"We need projects that are going to be visible soon," Hoyer said while presenting the bank's 2014 annual report.

But attempts to get private investors on board appear to be hitting several snags. A number of entrepreneurs don't want financing agreements to be revealed, while others are concerned about patents or protecting trade secrets.

Generally, companies have been found to be unwilling to take on additional risks after the painful lessons of the 2008 global financial crisis.

hg/sgb (AFP, AP, dpa)