Close to 400 stakeholders from managing authorities or involved in financial instruments under the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) attended the fi-compass conference ‘ERDF financial instruments – fit for 2021-2027’ on 7 October 2022 in Brussels and online, organised by the European Commission, Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO) and the European Investment Bank (EIB).
The flagship fi-compass ERDF conference focused on the three new model financial instruments that are available as blueprints to help boost investments in key sectors in the 2021-2027 programming period:
Watch the conference recording:
Peter Berkowitz, Policy Director at DG REGIO, opened the conference underlining the ambition of the Commission to see even more resources dedicated to financial instruments: ‘Member States can always count on us [European Commission] and fi-compass to support them to set up and implement the right tools to help achieve EU’s policy objectives’.
Simon Barnes, Head of Advisory Services at the EIB, complemented by highlighting that the EIB as the EU Climate Bank is committed to stepping up its support for Europe’s energy sector through the Bank’s lending, fund management and advisory activities: ‘financial instruments will be a key financing tool for the EU Green Deal’s Renovation Wave and REPowerEU initiatives’.
The sessions on the models explained their policy context and key features. Examples of relevant financial instruments from a number of Member States and regions were presented. Each session finished with an interactive discussion on how to implement such financial instruments in practice. At the conference, practitioners had also the opportunity to learn more about management costs and fees and payments in line with the Common Provisions Regulation 2021/1060 (CPR).
The parallel afternoon workshops provided participants the opportunity to exchange in smaller groups with peers as well as DG REGIO experts and the fi-compass team on their current experiences and challenges in implementation of 2021-2027 ERDF financial instruments. The key findings related to what is working well, what are the main challenges and what are the lessons learned so far were summarised by rapporteurs from each group in the final plenary session of the conference.
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The audio in the video files is in original language of the speakers. The English interpretation is available as audio files.
| Title | Speakers | ||
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The fi-compass model financial instrument with a grant component to support energy efficiency |
Aron Kerpel-Fronius, Policy officer, DG REGIO, European Commission |
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Model for a combined FI for energy efficiency |
Olivier Dumoulin, Investment Platform Advisor, European Investment Bank |
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Seven years in Tibet |
Aleksejs Kaņējevs, Deputy Head of Programme Development Department, Altum |
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IL-Biċċerija Valletta Design Cluster |
Amanda De Giovanni, Chief Architect and Civil Engineer, Valletta Design Cluster |
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The New European Bauhaus territorial development model (NEB TDM) financial instrument |
Ieva Zalite, Policy officer, DG REGIO, European Commission |
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Sustainable urban development and financial instruments |
Christoph Lassenberger, Head of Unit - Decentralised Financial Instruments - Strategy & Coordination, European Investment Bank |
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The fi-compass quasi-equity model financial instrument for SMEs |
Sara Dagostini, Policy officer, DG REGIO, European Commission |
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The FOSTER Occitanie experience |
Aubin Bonnet, Senior Mandate Manager, European Investment Fund |
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CPR 1060/2021 Management Costs and Fees |
Sara Dagostini, Policy officer, DG REGIO, European Commission |
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Financial instruments – Rules for Payments under Article 92(2) CPR |
Radka Konstantinova, Policy officer, DG REGIO, European Commission |
Model for a financial instrument with a grant component to support energy efficiency
This model financial instrument allows managing authorities to support energy efficiency projects that combine grants with loans in a single financial instrument operation.
Model financial instruments are intended to provide a non-exhaustive insight into the potential for managing authorities to use the new flexibilities in Article 58 of the Common Provisions Regulation (CPR).
New European Bauhaus territorial development model (NEB TDM) financial instrument
The final version of the New European Bauhaus territorial development model (NEB TDM) financial instrument has been published as a Commission Staff Working Document.
The model financial instrument aims to provide managing authorities implementing cohesion policy programmes with the building blocks, they could use to set up and implement the financial instrument supporting the New European Bauhaus projects in the 2021-2027 period based on the Common Provisions Regulation (CPR).
Quasi-equity finance for SMEs model financial instrument
The model financial instruments are intended to provide a number of examples pointing to the potential for managing authorities to use quasi-equity financial instruments in the 2021-2027 programming period. Quasi-equity financial instruments co-financed with shared management funds can help address specific cases of market failure that cannot be covered by other financial instruments such as standard debt and equity financial instruments.
