Publications
& Policy

The GBER plays a central role in shaping how State aid mobilises private capital to support innovation, growth and competitiveness in Europe. While the Commission’s draft for the 2027-2034 period introduces welcome flexibility, Invest Europe’s position highlights remaining structural misalignments that risk excluding viable, PE/VC‑backed companies from support.

This paper sets out Invest Europe’s views on the European Commission’s Omnibus initiative to simplify EU direct taxation, highlighting the challenges posed by complexity, fragmentation, and inconsistent implementation across Member States. It provides targeted policy recommendations to streamline tax rules, reduce administrative burdens, and support efficient cross-border investment, competitiveness, and sustainable economic growth in Europe.

The Invest Europe ESG KPI Report is the first annual ESG and sustainability data survey to track the industry’s efforts in tackling issues such as climate change, female under-representation and bribery and corruption. Through this initiative – alongside the creation of Invest Europe’s ESG Reporting Guidelines – European private equity can become an undisputed leader and standard setter on ESG measurement and reporting across the global private capital industry.

The Market Integration package takes meaningful steps toward removing long-standing barriers that have hindered fund managers’ ability to operate cross-border, while reflecting on the diversity of EU market. Nearly all of the proposed amendments 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.

In the context of start-up and scale-up strategy, fragmented EU tax rules complicate equity-based compensation, limiting talent mobility and cross-border growth. This position paper outlines harmonised solutions, including deferred taxation, common equity instruments, and the 28th regime (“EU Inc”), to support scalable, pan-European growth and long-term value creation.

The letter calls on EU leaders to take bold EU actions to overcome the EU's competitiveness challenges, ahead of the 19-20 March EU Council. It has been by co-signed by more than 110 venture capital, private equity and infrastructure firms.  

In this response to a European Commission consultation, Invest Europe, alonsgide most national VC and PE associations, makes the case for a revised architecture of the AIFMD and EuVECA marketing and management passports, alleviating rules for long-term equity managers and making it easier for them to market and manage funds cross-border.

The leaked draft of the 28th regime (EU Inc.) reflects the right objective, but its current scope and ambition risk limiting its effectiveness. Narrow definitions of innovation and growth, rigid thresholds, and inconsistencies with EU frameworks could exclude many of the companies it is meant to support. Addressing these shortcomings will be essential to ensure the regime drives uptake, reduces fragmentation, and delivers meaningful benefits for companies and investors.

With the SME definition currently under revision, the EU has a key opportunity to address a framework that misclassifies PE- and VC-backed companies as part of larger corporate groups, stripping otherwise eligible firms of SME status - and related incentives - solely due to their ownership structure. Recognising the independence of private capital-backed companies would incentivise SMEs to access private capital while reinforcing a more attractive investment environment, ultimately strengthening Europe’s innovation capacity and addressing its scaleup gap.

The Digital Omnibus proposals on DORA, such as the single EU incident‑reporting entry point, are a positive and pragmatic step towards a more coherent, efficient and proportionate digital resilience framework in the EU.

However, broader adjustments are still needed to ensure that DORA is workable for private capital managers and does not undermine the EU’s ambition to boost private investment, innovation and growth. In particular, DORA must better recognise the specific characteristics of long‑term, closed‑ended equity funds and avoid imposing on them ICT regimes designed for very different business models.