Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council – A framework for the next generation of innovative financial instruments – the EU equity and debt platforms

Innovative financial instruments should play an increasingly important role in the EU budget spending of the 2014-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). This Communication presents the Commission's view on the design and management of innovative financial instruments. The Commission's aim is to develop innovative financial instruments that pursue the Europe 2020 Strategy's objectives of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth in a highly efficient and effective manner, based on the solid experience already gained through the management of instruments which are operational in the current MFF.

Some of the effects of the economic and financial crisis are likely to spill over into the first years of the next MFF and impact the functioning of financial markets in the years to come. Fiscal consolidation measures will continue to reduce the capacity for national public investments, at the same time as structural changes in the regulation of financial institutions lead to changes in the appetite of such institutions for certain asset classes and types of risk.

Macroeconomic market developments will continue to impact the availability of venture capital for high growth and innovative activity supporting the Europe 2020 objectives. There will be a need to mitigate the prevailing risk aversion to ensure access to capital for growth generating activity such as infrastructure, SMEs and innovation throughout the MFF period, and innovative financial instruments can play an important role in this respect.

The present Communication takes stock of the analysis work on a new framework for innovative financial instruments which has been carried out by the Commission's services – in collaboration with its financing partners and other stakeholders and building on formal evaluations and assessments – throughout the phase of preparation of the next MFF.

It looks at the design and management of innovative financial instruments across policy sectors and sets out the next steps in achieving the Commission's ambition of a more streamlined, comprehensive and highly efficient and effective toolbox of innovative financial instruments to support the Europe 2020 Strategy objectives.

EUR-Lex: COM(2011)662: Follow the progress of this document through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2011:662:FIN

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