Published 6 May 2026 | European Digital Finance Association

EDFA Responds to the European Commission’s Consultation on Private Equity Exits

6 May 2026 | European Digital Finance Association

The European Digital Finance Association (EDFA) has submitted its response to the European Commission’s consultation on improving exit conditions for private equity and venture capital in the European Union.

Europe’s private markets face a structural liquidity problem. Holding periods are too long, exit conditions are uncertain, and the cost of capital for innovative companies is higher than it needs to be. Regulatory fragmentation across Member States makes it worse, as does an insufficient pipeline of early-stage investment flowing into start-ups and scale-ups.

EDFA’s response addresses both sides of that problem. On the supply side, EDFA has argued alongside more than 40 European digital investing platforms that the investment threshold under the European Crowdfunding Service Provider Regime (ECSP-R) should be raised to at least 12 million euros. Together with more than 20 leading exchanges for securities, EDFA has also called for the thresholds within the DLT Pilot Regime to be lifted. More early-stage funding means more companies reaching the scale where private equity and secondary market transactions become relevant.

On the exit side, EDFA calls for the development of an organised European secondary market for shares in private companies, built around liquidity windows rather than continuous trading. Such a model would improve capital recycling without replicating the full burden of public markets. EDFA also strongly supports the Commission’s proposals for a Regulatory Sandbox for Private Equity Exits and a bespoke experimental regime comparable to the DLT Pilot Regime.

Any framework should be proportionate, technology-neutral, and designed as EEA-relevant from the outset, to preserve the integrated nature of European private capital flows.