The use of financial instruments within the EU budget is becoming more and more common. The present study first revises key concepts in determining the use of those instruments and then offers an analysis of the functioning and consistency of the ex-ante assessments, which are required by regulation to help identify the rationale and scope for financial instruments. It offers recommendations to improve the ex-ante assessment process and on the use of these instruments across the EU.

The study was commissioned by the Budget Committee of the European Parliament and was published on its website in October 2017. It is republished on the CEPS website with the kind permission of the European Parliament. Jorge Núñez Ferrer is CEPS Senior Research Fellow; David Rinaldi is CEPS Associate Research Fellow; Apostolos Thomadakis is ECMI Researcher; Roberto Musmeci is CEPS Researcher. The four CEPS researchers were joined in this project by four additional external researchers: Martin Nesbit, Senior Fellow at the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP); Kamila Paquel, Senior Policy Analyst at IEEP; Andrea Illes, Policy Analyst at IEEP; and Katharina Ehrhart, Researcher at LSE Enterprise).

Two of the CEPS authors – Jorge Núñez Ferrer and Roberto Musmeci – have published a short contribution on the CEPS website intended to serve as a companion piece to the larger study.