European Venture Capital Funds

Key points:

• The EESC welcomes the Regulation on European Venture capital funds.
• The EESC particularly welcomes the planned role of European venture funds in supporting jobs creation in innovative, hi-tech European SMEs.
• The Committee is also satisfied with uniform requirements for registration of funds all over Europe and the EU-wide marketing passport
• However, the EESC draws attention to several limitations, which may weaken the anticipated impact such as limiting the scope of action of the qualifying venture fund. The EESC proposes to broaden the proposed regulation to include shares or units of others EVCFs as well as funds of funds, which may increase the total amount of capital available to SME investments.
• The EESC draws attention to the fact that the single passport does not settle the issue of tax transparency of investment vehicles. The problem of cross-border tax obstacles in venture capital should be examined and solutions proposed.

For more information please contact the INT Section Secretariat