Investment is essential if Europe is to achieve its 2020 objectives and should be encouraged by adapting accounting standards and the financial regulatory environment to the specificities of long term investors, Europe’s four leading public financial institutions argue in proposals made today.

The proposals were presented to European Internal Market and Services Commissioner Michel Barnier at a round-table on long term investment in Brussels organised by the four institutions: European Investment Bank (EIB), Caisse des Dépôts (CDC), Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP) and KfW Bankengruppe (KfW).

The four institutions urged the European Commission to look more closely at Europe’s long term investment needs and bring forward remedies to the barriers for long term investment that they have identified.

The proposals are based on the conclusions of a working group of experts that identified obstacles to the development of long-term investments in the current European financial regulatory framework.

The experts designed proposals that could alleviate these drawbacks, in particular in the context of the reform package of the Basel Committee on capital and liquidity requirements (Basel III) and the new IFRS standard for reporting on financial instruments.

The Round-Table was organised in the presence of representatives of the European institutions (Commission, Parliament and Belgian Presidency of the Council) and of European SMEs and regulatory bodies. Speakers included EIB President Philippe Maystadt, CDC CEO Augustin de Romanet, CDP Chairman Franco Bassanini, CDP CEO Giovanni Gorno Tempini, KfW Senior Vice-President Lutz-Christian Funke and Jean-Paul Gauzès, Member of the European Parliament.

All participants agreed long term investment - notably in knowledge-based industries, SMEs, low carbon emission projects and infrastructure projects - is crucial to meet the objectives of Europe’s 2020 strategy.