This case study describes the SELFIEmployment financial instrument in Italy which provides financial support through micro and small loans at zero interest rate for people Not (engaged) in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) to enhance their self-employment and entrepreneurship initiatives, thus increasing their chances of being included in the labour market.

This report offers a first look into the financial gap for agricultural enterprises for short-term and for medium and long-term loans. It is based on established European Commission methodology (Ex-ante assessment of the EU SME Initiative, 2013) and incorporates improved calculations. The input variables are based on updated data from Eurostat, the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) provided by DG AGRI and the SAFE survey. Wherever specific data for the agricultural sector was not available, approximations were used.

The European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) policy framework emphasises the need for more use of financial instruments in 2014-2020: the overall aim is therefore to deliver more ESIF funding through financial instruments in the future. To help achieve this, the European Commission, in partnership with the EIB, has set up a single advisory platform on ESIF financial instruments for the programming period 2014-2020. This advisory platform is called fi-compass.