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.

A new fi‑compass video has just been released to help raise awareness about the main types of financial instruments (e.g. loans, guarantees, equity and quasi-equity) that Member States and regions can choose to use in conjunction with the European Structural and Investment Funds.

This video illustrates the key features and differences between such financial instrument products.

A new agricultural case study has been published by fi‑compass that describes a French financial instrument from the Occitanie / Pyrénées-Méditerranée Region. Our new case study explains how this innovative instrument makes use of the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development via a fund of funds structure (named FOSTER TPE-PME) that includes First Loss Portfolio Guarantees supporting the agricultural, food and forestry sectors.

Over 200 delegates from 25 Member States gathered in Paris on 10 October for the third high-level annual fi‑compass conference on financial instruments using the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD). The conference aimed to take stock of progress made so far and raise further awareness about how financial instruments can help deliver on EAFRD objectives, especially in the fields of agriculture, agri-food, forestry and rural entrepreneurship. It was opened by Phil Hogan, the European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development who confirmed the role and place that financial instruments must have for agriculture, agri-food and for boosting growth and employment in rural economies.

This article is about a new fund of funds that uses resources from the European Regional Development Fund and from the European Fund for Strategic Investments to assist micro, small and medium-sized enterprises through loans and risk capital in France’s La Réunion region.