Our three day event entitled FI Campus was held in Brussels from Wednesday, 29 November to Friday, 1 December 2017. Its focus was on financial instruments under the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) in the 2014-2020 programming period, and the event was aimed especially at ESIF managing authorities, financial intermediaries, regions, cities and their stakeholders.

In the 2014-2020 legal framework, the managing authority of a financial instrument has the possibility to choose between several implementation options for financial instrument(s), as appropriate. The purpose of this new guidance note is to explain the implementation options for the management of financial instruments under Article 38(1)(b) of the Common Provisions Regulation.

October saw the fi‑compass advisory services for European Social Fund (ESF) financial instruments focus on opportunities for 'social banking' as well as the importance of capacity building services (CBS) for ESF final recipients and managing authorities.

Madrid was the location for a fi-compass ESF workshop in early October that raised awareness about our fi‑compass CBS and provided advice about managing life cycle stages of ESF financial instruments.

The role of social financial intermediaries in the set-up of national or regional level ESF financial instrument products was main topic for discussion during an ESF event organised last month in Brussels.

Finland was the location of the fi‑compass event ‘ESIF financial instruments in the 2014-2020 programming period – Opportunities for Finnish regions’ organised during September in the city of Kuopio.

Outcomes from the EaSI TA component of fi‑compass have recently included capacity building workshops and the release of a new video.Our new EaSI TA video is introduced by the European Commission's Ann Branch (Head of the Job Creation Unit at DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion) who explains that the film "shows how the European Union is helping the European microfinance sector by providing technical assistance."

A workshop about financial instruments was organised by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy - DG REGIO during the European Week of Regions and Cities. Entitled 'Financial instruments as a delivery mechanism for European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) post 2020,' the workshop's objective was to share experiences from experts involved with setting-up and implementing financial instruments in the 2014-2020 programming period, and to exchange ideas for ESIF post 2020.

Estonia holds the presidency of the Council of the European Union from July to December during 2017 and fi-compass has been speaking to some of the key actors involved with Estonian financial instruments to find out more about their perspectives. Estonia is one of the first Member States to have fully functional financial instruments contributing to all three of the objectives of EU policies for regional development, agriculture, and fisheries.

Lithuania's financial instrument promoting energy efficiency in apartment buildings has been featured as an interesting case study at fi‑compass events, and we went to speak to some of the people involved to find out more about this innovative way of using the European Regional Development Fund.