In light of the current economic situation and increasing scarcity of public funding, EU Financial Instruments (FIs) pooling various resources such as the Natural Capital Finance Faciliy (NCFF) or  EU Structural Funds are expected to play a stronger role in the European cohesion policy in the upcoming new programming period (2021-2027).

Working in the framework of a capstone project mentored by the EIB, Master’s students from Bocconi University analysed the different ways in which FIs support  investments (loans, guarantees, equity and other risk-bearing mechanisms) and tried to identify how to increase their efficiency and effectiveness. This field of research is, as of today, relatively thin and little explored.

The students worked in groups, based on the different FIs/fields selected. All presentations entailed setting out the rationale for the use of FIs, taking into account the variety of economic contexts in Europe; analysing the different forms in which FIs provide support for investments and describing how Member States have used FIs in the 2014-2020 Programming Period (best/worst practices). In addition, all presentations identified relevant issues that may influence the uptake of FIs and made recommendations from the Literature review as well as policy suggestions for the EIB.

The capstone was presented at the Bocconi, in Milan, on 4 December 2019. Click for the presentations on NCFF, ESIF, PF4EE and Structural Funds.

This is the third capstone presented in 2020 following What drives Fintech’s development? with the LSE and Impact investing in Europe with Sciences Po.