Advocacy

Microfinance and policymaker objectives are fully aligned. Both seek social betterment, improved economic engagement, social and financial inclusion, reduction of the burden on welfare systems, and positive effects on employment and employability. 

To enable microfinance to have this effect across Europe, many improvements are necessary to the regulatory treatment of microfinance institutions and of self-employment more generally. Such changes are needed both at national and European level, and must be backed up by the right kind of public support programmes.  

EMN, in close collaboration with the Microfinance Centre (MFC) actively participates in advocacy activities through the organisation of dialogues between policy makers and practitioners. It provides strategic information to its members on EU policy, meetings with political leaders, and represents the sector in public responses to consultations on various issues.

EMN's members have direct input into EMN's advocacy efforts through its Advocacy Committee. For any questions about EMN's advocacy efforts or committee, please contact Marie Vial (m.vial@european-microfinance.org). What follows is an overview of EMN's current positions on its priority files.

EMN Position Papers

1. Preparation for the 2021-2027 multiannual financial framework

EMN/MFC followed the design and negotiation phases of this budget cycle and took part in the stakeholder expert group that the EC consults when planning the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), to ensure the financial instruments and the programmes are most efficiently designed to support the microfinance actors.

The long-term EU budget, roughly 1 trillion Euro, was agreed at the Special session of the Council of the European Union, 17-21 July 2020. The new MFF will cover seven years between 2021 and 2027 and will also be the main instrument for implementing the recovery package to tackle the socio-economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Microfinance will benefit from the programmes that will be called InvestEU (for centralised support) and ESF+ (for decentralised support).

2. Actions to support Microfinance sector during COVID-19 context

Due to the pandemic, the risk of exclusion for microfinance clients has worsened drastically. On top of this, COVID-19 put some of the European microfinance institutions under severe financial and operational pressure. Despite this, MFIs have been showing their resilience and have been implementing several measures to help their clients. EMN has been sharing all these measures with DG EMPL since March 2020 on an ongoing basis and continues carrying out this exercise now in post-crisis context. Also, EMN started compiling public measures, concretely fiscal, monetary, social and employment initiatives, launched by governments of the EU countries to support the resilience of MFIs and their clients.

EMN has taken a very proactive role, advocating to the European institutions to pass amendments on the EaSI programme to be more flexible and adapt it to these difficult times, as well as demanding additional financial resources for the sector to overcome the pandemic economic and social consequences. 

3. ESF and Microfinance, working together for inclusive entrepreneurship

The objectives of the European Social Fund include improving employment and social inclusion. These are core to the mission of the microfinance sector, and microfinance institutions have a history of expertise in achieving these objectives. This makes microfinance institutions perfect partners for ESF managing authorities seeking to roll out programmes encouraging entrepreneurial skills, and to lower the barrier to financial inclusion.

EMN has developed a number of Policy Notes exploring particular topics that demonstrate the value of closer partnerships.

4. Costs and pricing of microcredit

Most microfinance institutions are not banks and need to borrow capital from banks to provide credit. This leads to higher interest rates charged to clients, unless public support is there to offset this. The following papers explore these issues, both from the pricing perspective, and from the perspective of how EU financial instruments can help relieve this pressure (or not).

5. Regulatory framework for the creation of microenterprises and self-employment

Member states each have their own approaches to how they empower entrepreneurship and self-employment. In some states it is a higher priority than others, and there is a lot of room for improvement across the continent, which also means the European institutions have an opportunity to lead the direction of upward convergence here.

EMN makes a number of suggestions that would be a strong starting point for improving the inclusiveness of entrepreneurship across Europe in its Note to DG GROW below. At the same time, the OECD produces a regular, thorough, report that gives country-specific policy recommendations for identifying and boosting excluded target groups.

6. EU definition of microfinance and microcredit

The EU definition for microfinance sets an important precedent for the member states. Over the past decade, the EU definition has seen strong improvements to be more in line with EMN/MFC suggestions. However, there is more work to be done to reflect the essentially social and inclusive nature of microfinance, and to drive for more harmonisation of national definitions across Europe.
A full account and reasoning behind the EMN/MFC proposed definition can be found in the document below.

7. Close the funding gap for the microfinance sector and microfinance in the Capital Market Union

Though the microfinance industry has been rapidly growing according to the overview surveys data carried out in the past years, a study produced by evers & jung has suggested that the current size of the microfinance industry is still only covering a fraction of the potential demand. Policymakers, investors and microfinance practitioners must work together to address this gap through a combination of sourcing new funds, and marketing them effectively.

Beyond identifying this funding gap, one of the main initiatives at EU level aiming to increase access to finance is the Capital Markets Union (CMU) – a series of measures proposed to make the EU a single market for capital

Advocacy toolkit for EMN members

1. The European Microcredit Whitepaper

The European Microcredit Whitepaper is a comprehensive 40-page introduction to the European microcredit sector. It explores its definition, its history, and key figures. It explores the social and economic impact, and sets out in which ways it achieves the policymakers' objectives, and the ways in which the EU supports microcredit. At the end, it sets out a number of policy proposals that could globally improve the framework for microcredit.

The Whitepaper can hopefully help EMN members shape their own stories, to help them demonstrate the context, value, and goals of European microfinance, and help communicate these to policymakers and other stakeholders.

The whitepaper was published in July 2019 by a working group of the Parisian business association EUROPLACE, with EMN playing an active role in the shaping and delivery of the document. The working group included members of the French Central Bank, the banking association, and several financial service providers.

2. Microfinance in EU policies

EC Final Communication 2007: A European initiative for the development of micro-credit in support of growth and employment

In the beginning of the years 2000, in the EU, the microcredit sector in many Member States and regions was developing rapidly, and a number of actions were taken at Community level to reinforce the growth of the sector. However, there was clear evidence that much more can be done.

The EC elaborated this Communication, which set the basis for the different programmes and actions developed and under implementation by the EU institutions over the past decade. It proposes a European microcredit initiative focused on 4 main points:
Strand 1: Improving the legal and institutional environment in the Member States 
Strand 2: Further changing the climate in favour of entrepreneurship 
Strand 3: Promoting the spread of best practices 
Strand 4: Providing additional financial capital for new and non-bank MFIs

COM(2007) 708 final

European Pillar of Social Rights

The European Pillar of Social Rights is a manifesto setting out the principles of sustainable growth and the promotion of economic and social progress, as well as cohesion and convergence, while upholding the integrity of the internal market, to achieve efficient employment and social outcomes. It was agreed as a commitment made by the leaders of 27 Member States and of the European Council, the European Parliament and the European Commission in the Rome agenda, 2017.

European Pillar of Social Rights underpins all the work that the European Commission does, and particularly the work done in the social sphere by DG GROW.

For microfinance, the key is “Access to essential services: Everyone has the right to access essential services of good quality, including water, sanitation, energy, transport, financial services and digital communications. Support for access to such services shall be available for those in need.” Also, useful remarkable messages in Chapter I point 4 a. and c., Chapter II point 5 c. and Chapter III point 12

European Pillar of Social Rights

EU Social Economy Action Plan

In June 2023 the European Commission publishes its proposal for a “Council recommendation enabling framework conditions for social economy.

On November 27th, the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council (EPSCO) adopted the Council Recommendation to enable the development of framework conditions for the development of social economy. 

With this recommendation, Member States of the EU are asked to set up an enabling environment to allow the development of the social economy sector.

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Social Economy Action Plan

Sustainable Development Goals

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are an ambitious plan of action defining sustainable development priorities at a global level to 2030, with the aim of eradicating poverty and promoting decent lives with opportunities for all. There are 17 goals and 169 universal targets that are inter-connected, applicable to all nations and peoples, and that represent a call to action for governments, civil society and the private sector.

Microfinance, combining financial products and business development services, contributes and is an enabler to the improvement of several of the SDGs:

  • SDG 8 "DECENT WORK" - Targets 3, 6, and 10. Encouraging entrepreneurship and inclusive job creation are key to ensuring everyone can contribute to the labour market with dignity. This in turn contributes to reducing extreme poverty, to growing the middle class, and to growing the economy.
  • SDG 10 "REDUCE INEQUALITIES" - Targets 1, 2 and 4. Growing income inequalities require sound policies to empower lower income earners and promote the economic inclusion of all regardless of gender, ethnicity, age, disability, or religion.
  • SDG 4 "QUALITY EDUCATION" - Targets 4 and 5. Teaching financial literacy at all ages contributes to eliminating gender and wealth disparities and encourages universal access to productive economic participation. Microcredit leverages support, coaching, mentorship to ensure clients have the necessary skills to succeed in business.

 

Transition Pathway for the proximity and social economy for a green and digital transition

In parallel to the Social Economy Action Plan (SEAP), in December 2022, the European Commission published its Transition Pathway for the green and digital transition of the proximity and social economy sector. This first document explained how the proximity and social economy sector could contribute to the green and digital transition. This document has open to feedbacks from the stakeholders.

A series of workshop followed up in the spring during which stakeholders were invited to attend to express their views regarding the challenges and the opportunities of green and digital transition. Based on these feedbacks the European Commission drafted a final report putting forward a set of 30 actions in 14 different area to support the social economy sector in the green and digital transition.

Transition pathway for Proximity and Social economy

As part of the Transition pathway, EMN and its members submitted 2 pledges in February 2023:

  • The first one on how to create financial incentives and supportive regulation for green and circular social economy business models;
  • The second one on the development on digital platforms to scale up access to finance

 

3. Demonstrating the social and economic impact of microfinance

In delivering assistance to microfinance, policymakers are faced with a cost-benefit judgement which is hard to quantify. The discussion often goes in a quantitative direction, as financial return is a concrete, numerical indicator of a measure's performance. However, it is very important to remind policymakers that financial returns are not the only indicator, nor is it the most important indicator for the effectiveness of a social-minded initiative such as microfinance. Policymakers must also take into account the social impact that this sector has. Promoting the benefits of microfinance can be hard if the social benefit remains intangible. Many stakeholders have set out to try to measure the intangible, secondary or holistic benefits that come from microfinance activity, and their efforts can be used as examples to show to policymakers, or on which to base your own data collection. 

Impact studies examples

Qredits published its 2018 Social Annual Report demonstrating their contribution to the economy, employment and the reduction of welfare beneficiaries. It has a definite impact on the society, with 12,000 entrepreneurs financed, 25,000 jobs created, €47 million in government savings in social welfare, 87% survival rate after 3 years, 7% of customers employ partially disabled or people on welfare and 19% of companies work with volunteers. In addition, in October 2019 Qredits has developed a new loan product for social enterprises.

MicroBank 2019 Annual Report illustrates the impact on the entrepreneur and his/her family environment: 81% improved their management ability, 69% improved liquidity, for 46% income level have increased, in terms of individual well-being 97% feel capable and valuable in their daily lives, 90% find their work fulfilling and 52% integrate some form of environmental good practices. Moreover, MicroBank managed to show its impact for business consolidation (74% of entrepreneurs feel that their business has been consolidated as a result of the loan), for job creation (microcredits directly contributed to the creation of 20,174 jobs and businesses that received a microcredit directly created an average of 1.2 jobs) and for wealth generation in the area (total of 56,836 jobs in Spain were linked to the activities of the businesses funded by MicroBank and making a contribution to the GDP of  €1,543 million).

PerMicro is another organisation giving a key role to the social impact of their products/services, elaborated the report measuring impact for enterprises and for families in 2018. PerMicro contribution to job creation and strengthening employment is demonstrated in the report: in average every enterprise supported by PerMicro created new job positions (60% are young people, 23% migrants, 46% women and 48% unemployed). In terms of economic-social welfare and poverty reduction, 46% of entrepreneurs improved their quality of life and 47% of entrepreneurs have an average income higher than 608€/month, 2,5% of families crossed over the poverty line and 29% of people no longer live in conditions of sever material deprivation as previously declared. Finally, the component of empowerment of women is also mentioned, 58% of customer of microcredits for families were female, the majority of them are migrants, 11% young women under 35 and half of them has more than one child.

EMN has collected more examples here, and a systematic approach in the impact measurement and management assessment can be found in the following paper of Microfinanza srl published in May 2020.

Social Return on Investment method

If we consider that microfinance gives people opportunities to create their own employment, the calculation of the impact of microfinance should also calculate how much it saves the welfare system, and how much taxable value it generates.

Adie, together with KMPG, developed the Social return on Investment (SROI) method. The return on investment is, in short, revenue generated for society, and costs avoided by society thanks to Adie’s work. The SROI method allows us to put a number on the revenue generated and costs avoided. The result of the SROI work shows that investment in microfinance products has a positive leverage on public budgets, €1 invested in Adie’s professional microcredit programme, that is the work with entrepreneurs, generates a revenue of 2,38 EUR in 24 months of time.

microStart in Belgium did a similar exercise and identified 3 different socio-economic impacts generated: a) The savings for the Belgian government in their social benefits programs; b) The additional revenues for the Belgian treasury generated by the activities of microStart’s clients; c) Enhancement of local economies and economic inclusion of communities. For every €1 microStart grants as a loan, the government adds €1.31 to its budget.

MEMI project

The project seeks to provide policy makers with the evidence-based policy recommendations capable of strengthening further the role of microfinance as one of the strategic tools to obtain financial and social inclusion in the EU.

"Measuring Microfinance Impact in the EU. Policy Recommendations for Financial and Social Inclusion" is a three-year (2016-2019) research project which has been financed by the EIB Institute and supervised by the EIF. The main aim of the research project is to assess the impact of microfinance compared to that of welfare programmes, on financial and social inclusion to establish which one ensures the higher social return.

3 Working Papers have been published as a results from this MEMI project:

4. Overview of EU available funding resources

Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI) Programme 

The EaSI programme is an EU financing instrument to promote a high level of quality and sustainable employment, guaranteeing adequate and decent social protection, combating social exclusion and poverty and improving working conditions (2014-2020). It has three main axes. The Microfinance and Social Entrepreneurship axis: with the objective of supporting access to microfinance and social entrepreneurship, had 3 types of instruments of funding: a guarantee instrument, capacity building and a funded instrument.

The EaSI Guarantee is available until September 30th 2023. For more information you can check the website of the European Investment Fund.

InvestEU programme

According to the European Commission assessment, the EaSI programme has proven the capacity of EU-level financial instruments to deliver the objectives envisaged by the EU regulation for micro-finance and social entrepreneurship, therefore justify its continuity and need for additional firepower.

The success of the EaSI programme led to the pursuit of objectives through a new tool, the InvestEU programme which is part of the 2021-2027 Multi-Financial Framework (MFF). The InvestEU program aims at supporting sustainable investment, innovation and job creation in Europe.

The program consists of three components:

  1. InvestEU Fund

With an EU budget guarantee of EUR 26.2 billion backing investments from implementing partners, the InvestEU Fund will support four windows:

  • Sustainable infrastructure: financing projects in sustainable energy, digital connectivity, transport, the circular economy, water, waste
  • Research, innovation and digitalisation: financing projects in research and innovation
  • Small and medium-sized companies: facilitating access to finance for small and medium-sized companies
  • Social investments and skills: financing projects in skills, education, training, social housing, schools, universities, hospitals, social innovation, healthcare, long-term care, accessibility, microfinance, social enterprise, integration of migrants, refugees and vulnerable people.

In March 2022, the European Commission, EIF and EIB (the main implementing partners) signed the Guarantee Agreement which is covering 75% of the EU guarantee. The guarantee is also open to other international financial institutions and promotional banks such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the Council of Europe development Bank (CEB) and the Nordic Investment Bank (NIB).

The Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) is providing loans to microfinance institutions and social finance providers to finance vulnerable entrepreneurs and to support their social inclusion.

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Source: European Commission

Microfinance is part of the last window with a budget of EUR 2.78 billion and three main policy areas: 1) Microfinance and social enterprises, social impact innovation, 2) Education, training and skills and 3) social infrastructure.

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                              Source: European Commission

Under InvestEU, EIF launched a guarantee products for financial intermediaries

  • SME Competitiveness guarantee
  • Sustainability guarantee
  • Innovation and Digitalisation guarantee
  • Cultural and Creative guarantee
  • Microfinance and Social Entrepreneurship guarantee
  • Skills and Education guarantee

You can find more information on EIF guarantee products here.

  1. InvestEU Advisory Hub

The advisory Hub provides technical support and assistance for entities involved in the preparation, development, structuring and implementation of investment projects.

  1. InvestEU Portal

The portal brings together investors and project promoters on a platform

Technical assistance under InvestEU

The technical assistance provided under the EaSI (Employment and social innovation programme) is now part of the InvestEU Advisory Hub. The new programme called SIFTA, managed by EIB, will provide targeted capacity building, project advisory and market development support to financial intermediaries active in the microfinance and/ or social entrepreneurship spaces.

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                              Source: European Commission

Available in the 27 EU members states, the initial programme is open until December 2024. The program is open to microfinance providers such as banks and non-bank microfinance institutions and social enterprise finance providers such as investment funds, impact investors, incubators, accelerators that offer financial support to social enterprises.

SIFTA services (project advisory, capacity building and market development services) will be performed by a consortium of three organisations: Frankfurt School of Finance and Management (Consortium Leader), Microfinance Centre (Consortium Partner) and European Microfinance Network (Consortium Partner).

Information about SIFTA services are accessible here. Applicants of microfinance and social enterprise finance providers can apply for specific SIFTA services by sending an email to sifta@eib.org.

InvestEU Webpage

European Social Fund (ESF)

The European Social Fund is part of the EU structural and investment funds, and represents a large part of the EU budget that is put at the service of regional "Managing Authorities". These Managing Authorities set up programmes to achieve social objectives, and occasionally work with microfinance providers to achieve such objectives.

We have prepared a practical toolbox for you to discover more about ESF in your country and to start approaching your Managing Authority:

  • Consult existing Operational Programmes in your country/region 
  • Check out funded projects in your country  
  • Plan ahead for your involvement in future ESF activities:
    • Get in contact with your Managing Authority to get relevant information on the preparation of Partnership Agreements in your country (e.g. how to participate in official public consultations ahead of drafting the Partnership Agreements, which body is in charge of the consultation, or what is the timing? etc.) and to create awareness of the potential of microfinance in meeting ESF goals on employment.
    • Consult examples of communications addressed to national government and regional managing authorities during the preparation of Partnership Agreements and OPs 2014-2020 that can be updated in view of the next ESF programming period.
    • Advocate for your Managing Authority to set up a microcredit financial instrument as promoted by fi-compass. Fi-compass also offers several days of technical assistance to managing authorities, to give them tailored training in setting up financial instruments. Make your managing authority aware that this assistance is available for them. 

An analysis of the role of microfinance using European Social Fund (ESF) funding has been performed by Microfinanza srl, selecting 5 case studies study in Spain, Italy, Poland, Belgium and Bulgaria. The primary market failures identified are related to: complexity, time consuming, lack clarity on the application process, reduced availability of information, strict eligibility criteria, limited awareness of Managing Authorities, no common policy for long-term commitment or focus on specific topics and lack of cohesion around the strategy of national policies and Managing Authorities. For a deeper understanding and overview, do not hesitate to consult this report.

European Social Fund plus (ESF+)

The European Social Fund + is part of the EU structural and investment funds, and represents a large part of the EU budget that is put at the service of regional "Managing Authorities". These Managing Authorities set up programmes to achieve social objectives, and occasionally work with microfinance providers to achieve such objectives.

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                              ESF + implementation

Source: European Commission

 

ESF + has a budget of EUR 87.9 billion for the period 2021-2027, out of which EUR 87.3 billion for the shared management strand implemented by the EU Member States (including ESF + Technical Assistance) and EUR 676 million for the EaSI strand. The European Social Fund plus will pursuit the work undertaken with the European Social Fund on EU’s employment, social, education and skills policies.

The new ESF + will merge the previous European Social Fund (ESF), Youth Employment (YEI), Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD), EU Health programme and employment and social innovation (EaSI) programme.

The implementation of the ESF + is mostly executed by the Managing Authorities in the shape of what is called “shared management”. A small part of the budget will also be centrally managed by the European Commission (EaSI Ta programme).

To receive support from the ESF + we recommend to:

    • Get in contact with your Managing Authority to get relevant information on the preparation of Partnership Agreements in your country (e.g. how to participate in official public consultations ahead of drafting the Partnership Agreements, which body is in charge of the consultation, or what is the timing? etc.) and to create awareness of the potential of microfinance in meeting ESF goals on employment.
    • Advocate for your Managing Authority to set up a microcredit financial instrument as promoted by fi-compass. Fi-compass also offers several days of technical assistance to managing authorities, to give them tailored training in setting up financial instruments. Make your managing authority aware that this assistance is available for them. 

An analysis of the role of microfinance using European Social Fund (ESF) funding has been performed by Microfinanza srl, selecting 5 case studies study in Spain, Italy, Poland, Belgium and Bulgaria. The primary market failures identified are related to: complexity, time consuming, lack clarity on the application process, reduced availability of information, strict eligibility criteria, limited awareness of Managing Authorities, no common policy for long-term commitment or focus on specific topics and lack of cohesion around the strategy of national policies and Managing Authorities. For a deeper understanding and overview, do not hesitate to consult this report.

5. Improving the national regulatory frameworks

In order to create a healthy atmosphere for microfinance, it is essential that it can rely on an enabling environment for entrepreneurship and self-employment. In most jurisdictions there is still work to be done to improve the framework conditions for self-employment.

To determine which regulatory aspects of self-employment are most crucially blocking progress in your country, you can self-evaluate using the following tools:

  • OECD "Better Entrepreneurship" self-assessment tool. This online self-assessment tool can be used as a starting point for dialogues with government officials, to agree on where improvements can be made in the supporting environment for entrepreneurship.
  • OECD "The Missing Entrepreneurs" publication gives country-by-country policy recommendations.
  • This Economist Intelligence Unit article sets out a range of influencing conditions.

EMN performed the exercise of analysing the regulatory environment for microfinance in most European countries, elaborating legislative mapping reports per country. Members can use these reports as a basis for orienting their own efforts. In addition, MFIs can also take a look to the microcredit regulation overview report for past year. This paper can be a practical tool to compare their context with that of their peers across Europe, learning from their challenges and engage in discussion with policymakers on regulatory issues.

Here is selection of good practices in advocacy at national level from EMN members. To access the Good Practices, please click on the titles below.  

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