The Europe 2020 strategy for growth and jobs called for a stronger role of financial instruments in 2014-2020. The European Council subsequently gave a mandate to the European Commission that the programming of the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) should be used to significantly increase the overall EU support from these funds to leveragebased financial instruments, in particular for SMEs. An increase of the use of ESIF financial instruments, to a level almost double that of the 2007-2013 programming period, is also set out in the Investment Plan for Europe. To achieve this, the new legal and policy framework has widened the scope of financial instruments to include all thematic objectives and all five ESI funds. The framework also gives more implementation options to Member States.