On 28 May 2020, the Commission submitted a legislative proposal (4) to amend the existing EFSD Regulation, with a view to extending its duration and geographic scope and increasing the amount of the EU guarantee provided under it. On 2 June 2020, the Commission published a report on the implementation of the EFSD pursuant to Article 17(1) of the EFSD Regulation (‘the implementation report’) (5). This report was accompanied by an independent implementation report (‘the external assessment report’) on the EFSD and the EFSD Guarantee Fund, dated 14 January 2020, which he Commission published on its website on 4 June 2020 (6). In its special meeting of 17, 18, 19, 20 and 21 July 2020, the European Council decided that there would be no change to the 2014-2020 multiannual financial framework (MFF) (7). In response to these developments, we decided to focus our Opinion on the implementation report, without referring further to the Commission’s legislative proposal.