Social investment funds : a declaration for a favourable European regulation

Published on 05.10.2022

In Europe, social economy plays a major role in environmental and social transitions. However, its actors are encountering difficulties to obtain fundings.

Social investment funds : a declaration for a favourable European regulation

Social economy plays a major role in social and environmental transitions in Europe. However, social economy actors have trouble financing their activities : their needs, that are specific to their social utility mission, are not answered by traditional finance. This is a problem that can be met across borders, in the European Union.

This is why innovative social investment funds develop and answer this need for financing. However, those funds aren’t taken into account enough in European regulation : restrictions that were put into place with traditional funds in mind also impact social investment funds and hider their development and their diffusion.
This is the case, for instance, for the French 90/10 fund model : due to regulation, it cannot be sold to retail investors outside of France.

Hence, signatories of this declaration would like to invite the EU to take into account social investment funds, and their contribution to just transitions, in financial regulation.

Indeed, regulation may need to be adapted to allow a better financing of social economy in Europe, which is one of the objectives of the Commission’s Action Plan for social economy.

FAIR, as well as all the signatories of this declaration, would like to call European institutions to work on the revision of existing regulation, as well as including social investment funds in any future piece of regulation, in order to reach this objective.

To read the declaration

  • Declaration_For social investment funds.pdf PDF - 190.51 KB

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