Publications
& Policy

Invest Europe has responded to the public consultation on a possible recast of DAC 1–9, calling for a more harmonised, proportionate and legally certain application of DAC6. The reply highlights the need for clearer EU-level guidance, streamlined reporting obligations, and greater transparency in the use of reported data to reduce unnecessary compliance burdens while preserving effective tax transparency.

This webinar was the opportunity to hear about recent developments affecting EU and UK fund management rules, not least the publication of the new European Commission on Market Integration and the EuGrowth initiative. During the call were also discussed recent developments in the UK, as well as potential future developments on financial stability related rules.

From a private capital perspective, Europe’s proposed 28th regime has the potential to reduce legal fragmentation, enhance investability, and better support capital flows across the full growth journey of European companies. A practical, pan-European corporate framework could mobilize Europe’s private capital ecosystem, if it keeps into account the financing needs of the businesses targeted by the regime.

The Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD or Directive 2011/61/EU) creates a comprehensive regulatory and supervisory framework for the management and marketing of private equity, venture capital and other alternative investment funds (AIFs) in the European Economic Area. The harmonised European standards for alternative investment fund managers (AIFMs) aim to enhance the transparency of the activities of AIFMs and the funds they manage towards investors and public authorities.

The ELTIF Regulation came into force in 2015 and created a new European product framework for both professional and retail investors looking to invest in long-term assets. To qualify as an ELTIF, a fund must first be an Alternative Investment Fund and then meet certain other conditions. Eligible investments include debt and equity instruments in all unlisted companies, as well as real assets such as infrastructure. 

The Solvency II Directive is the legislation setting out prudential rules for the European insurance industry. It provides a risk measurement framework for defining capital requirements for insurance companies when they invest into private equity and venture capital funds.

The Institutions for Occupational Retirement Provision Directive (IORP II) establishes an EU regulatory framework for the pensions sector. Contrary to Solvency II for insurers and CRD/CRR for banks, the current Directive follows a non-risk based approach to the regulatory requirements for pension funds. However, it clarifies that investments in all alternative asset classes may not exceed 30% of the total assets of the IORP.

The KID-PRIIPS (Key Information Document for Packaged Retail Investment and Insurance-based Products) Regulation requires fund managers who sell investment products to retail investors to produce a three-page document detailing the risk profile, as well as the expected performance of the product, and to disclose costs these investors would face when investing. For this purpose, retail investors are all investors that are not deemed professional under revised MiFID/MiFIR rules, which came into force in 2018.

Nearly all of the proposed amendments of the Market Integration package on asset management will help usually small private equity, venture capital and infrastructure managers to operate more efficiently across the Union – and will therefore unlock capital for the companies they support

Invest Europe, as also part of a coalition of trade associations representing businesses and advisers from the EU and its key trading partners, is committed to creating a level playing field and boosting Europe’s competitiveness, attractiveness and growth. This is why we call upon the European Commission and co-legislators to pursue an ambitious legislative review of the Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) to hone its scope and tailor its application to create a proportionate balance between targeting distortive foreign subsidies and promoting European competitiveness.

In this paper Invest Europe argued against an interpretation of AIFMD leverage rules that would capture portfolio company debt as leverage of the fund.

During this webinar we unpacked the key elements of the review and discussed what they could mean in practice for PE/VC fund managers and investors.

Invest Europe welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the review of the Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR). As the association representing private equity (PE), venture capital (VC), and infrastructure fund managers and their investors, we want to highlight that the sector is disproportionately affected by the current FSR regime.

Too many PE/VC-backed companies are mislabelled “in difficulty”, penalizing how innovation is scaled and financed. Invest Europe's response highlights the need to update the rules to reflect real-world business models, to unlock investment, reduce distortions, and support the EU’s competitiveness where it matters most.

Europe has the science, talent, and ambition to lead globally in biotech and healthcare, but to secure that leadership and potential, we must build the conditions that make innovation, capital, and people to start, scale and remain in Europe. In this paper, Invest Europe highlights how to strengthen Europe’s biotech and healthcare ecosystem: unlocking investment at every stage, ensuring public funding complements private capital, promoting smarter and harmonised regulation, creating a competitive end-user market for innovation, harnessing technology and data that accelerate discovery, and strengthening the entrepreneurial workforce - to deliver world-class breakthroughs that drive prosperity, resilience, and better health.