Communication: Towards a more efficient financial architecture for investment outside the European Union

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In order to respond to the increasingly complex challenges in the world around us – ranging from poverty conflicts and migration to climate-change and demographic challenges – development finance needs to rely on a combination of funding sources. To increase the impact, public and private funds must be leveraged as efficiently as possible. This requires the European Union to be agile and stand ready to adapt and develop further its financial instruments and policy tools for investments outside the EU, hereby complementing its traditional development cooperation toolbox, in order to deliver on its ambitious commitments to sustainable development.

The Commission invites the current main financial and development institutions active in development financing – at the national and European level – to consider a more collaborative approach, coherent with the EU external action objectives, when financing investments backed by EU budget guarantees. In order to fully implement the general principle of coordination of Union and Member States' development policies, these main actors are in particular encouraged to enhance operational synergies, as well as complementarity in terms of geographical and sectorial areas and portfolios of expertise and experience, while at the same time preserving innovation and a healthy level of competition and diversity in the market. Such cooperation could also be extended to other global International Financial Institutions.