EU drops plan to force pension funds to put 2% into venture capital
A proposal to require large European occupational pension funds to put at least 2% of their assets under management into venture capital has been dropped, Het Financieele Dagblad (FD) reported on 23 October 2026 after seeing provisional compromise texts. The requirement had been floated by German MEP Damian Boeselager, the European Parliament's rapporteur on the review of the IORP II pension fund directive. Pensioen Pro reports that the 2% plan did not survive negotiations within the European Parliament.
The wider push continues: Brussels still wants pension funds to invest more in sectors that drive growth and innovation, but a binding venture capital allocation is off the table. Dutch pension funds remain free to decide whether, and how much, to invest in European venture capital.
The European Commission's supplementary pensions package (20 November 2025), part of the Savings and Investments Union strategy, did not include a VC quota. It replaces the "prudent person rule" with a "prudent person principle" so pension funds may invest in any asset class they can properly manage, and says larger funds with enough scale "should also consider private equity, venture capital and growth equity funds". The Council adopted its position on 24 June 2026. Boeselager's draft report (2 June 2026) added the minimum VC allocation for large schemes.
The pension pool dwarfs what reaches venture. Invest Europe data show about $15.5B of commitments from European pension funds and insurers to European venture funds over 2016–2025 ($6.3B from pension funds), roughly 0.10% of a ~$15T pension and insurance pool. The Dutch pension sector alone manages more than €1.7T.
The pension industry lobbied hard against the mandate. AEIP executive director Simone Miotto called it "a red line that should not be crossed", saying funds "could invest more in growth, innovation, defence, technology, VC, but they should not be forced to do that". PensionsEurope also criticised the direction of the reform. ABP chair Harmen van Wijnen earlier told FD his fund is "not the ATM" of companies and governments. Invest Europe had backed the 2% floor.
FD (Dutch, paywalled) · Pensioen Pro · MT/Sprout · European Pensions · IPE · European Commission, COM(2025) 839 · EP Legislative Train · Dealroom: Savings, Pensions & European Innovation
Photo: European Parliament, Brussels (Wikimedia Commons)
