As the JRC found, DNSH is currently implemented through different methods, legal designs and assessment approaches across EU instruments. Public funding instruments use DNSH in different ways: to exclude harmful projects, to improve the environmental performance of supported activities, and in some cases to steer funding towards the highest-performing options. This fragmentation makes the framework
BETTER FINANCE supports the direction of the Master Regulation to integrate EU capital markets, with less cross-border friction and a stronger supervisory architecture. From our perspective, its value should lie in lowering costs through less intermediation, more efficient post-trade/trading structures, and better access to products and markets across borders. A key proof point would be
BETTER FINANCE supports the objectives of the MISP package and broadly welcomes the effort to remove barriers to cross-border activity and liquidity, streamline distribution, and reduce unnecessary intermediation, while preserving competitive markets. We also support the EC goal of widening access to investment opportunities and improving capital raising across the EU. To achieve this, however,
BETTER FINANCE welcomes the Commission’s continued efforts towards deeper, better integrated financial markets, where individual investors can find a greater diversity of cost-efficient investment opportunities. The Commission’s intention to review the regulatory framework for venture and growth capital funds—small AIFs and EuVECA funds—is much welcome, as the scaling up of these funds is an essential
BETTER FINANCE expresses its strong support for its German member, DSW (Deutsche Schutzvereinigung für Wertpapierbesitz), and for the Ethos Foundation in their joint call for listed German companies to hold in-person or hybrid annual general meetings (AGMs). While the majority of small and medium-sized listed companies in Germany have returned to physical AGMs, several constituents of the DAX continue to rely exclusively
The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) published a Consultation Paper on the revised Guidelines on reporting and public disclosure. The proposals aim to keep the Guidelines fit for purpose while further enhancing proportionality and limiting administrative burden in the Solvency II reporting and disclosure framework. In this consultation, BETTER FINANCE responded to the
The European Commission sent the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) a Call for Advice on the possible minimum harmonisation of Insurance Guarantee Schemes (IGS) in the European Union (EU), with the objective to generalise and, where they exist, harmonise, these mechanisms. EIOPA then organised on 27 January 2026 a stakeholder workshop to expose
As announced in the Communication on the Savings and Investments Union (SIU)1, the European Commission aims to give European citizens broader access to capital markets and companies better financing options. This renewed policy agenda builds on the still incomplete Banking Union (BU) but also, crucially, succeeds and supersedes the largely unsuccessful Capital Market Union (CMU) agenda. It therefore foresees assessments and potential revisions of most of the European Union (EU) legislation governing the
BETTER FINANCE supports the EC’s objective to operationalise the Listing Act with shorter, reduced-burden prospectuses. We acknowledge the proposal to align further the “Follow-on” and the “Growth prospectuses” with the sequence of the full prospectus. Yet, while we had favoured a more tailored and easier-to-comprehend ‘narrative-led structure’, we acknowledge the balanced approach intended to maintain a standardised-oriented sequence across all
The European Commission is setting forth its delegated act that specifies new governance and transparency requirements for investment firms choosing between two distinct research payment models. These rules enact a choice: firms may continue to pay for research separately from trading costs (the “unbundled” model), or opt for the newly re-introduced possibility of paying for research jointly with execution fees (the “re-bundled” model of joint payment accounts). This latter