The general objective of this service contract is to support the European Commission in its yearly examination of capital movements and the freedom of payments in support of the Economic and Financial Committee, as required by Article 134(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. More specifically, the contract should help the European Commission to prepare its yearly reports on developments in the field of capital movements regarding cross-border direct investment, portfolio investment and banking flows and stocks. Additionally, in line with the current European Commission priorities, the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) has called upon the Commission services to focus on identifying national barriers to the Capital Markets Union and on mapping policy actions in order to address them in the coming years. In this context, the study should underpin as well the work of a dedicated expert group.

The tasks to be carried out are directly linked to the 2 main deliverables: a monitoring part and a special (analytical) topic. The section on the monitoring of capital flows should highlight the main trends in the most recent period from a backward-looking and forward-looking perspective and should elaborate a narrative on the main developments over the reporting period at the global level, at EU level, for different groups of Member States and in individual countries of specific interest. The special topic should contain a deeper analysis of a specific issue, presenting a literature survey on the topic, highlighting its policy relevance and potential implications, looking at cross-country differences across Member States or evaluating the possible effects on cross-border flows and financial integration. Typically, the special topic should involve the use of statistical analysis or modelling, while the monitoring part should be based on the updating, building and analysis of datasets and data models. Depending on the special topic to be selected, one of the main deliverables may be the building-up of a database that will be subsequently used for economic analysis. Therefore, the expected deliverables may include as well datasets, databases, data models and economic analysis models used.