There are new challenges ahead for the EU: the refugee crisis, climate change, high youth unemployment, external security issues, cyber threats and terrorism. Therefore, financial resources will be needed. The EU budget after 2020 may be even more modest than the current one. As a consequence, competition for funding, particularly in the form of subsidies, will also be tightened, also under the CA P and cohesion policy. Financial instruments, namely repayable tools, should be more emphasized. The main aim of the article is to assess the potential use of financial instruments as tools that may partially replace the CA P and cohesion policy in the near future. Theoretical rationales (i.e. credit constraints, credit interventions) will be presented. An in-depth discussion will be undertaken (using elements of economics of public sector, public finance and political economy) on the perspectives of dissemination of these instruments. Our paper is a review study, with some elements of meta-analysis. The analysis shows that the aforesaid instruments can mainly be used for actions within rural, local and regional development programmes in which incomes may be generated, i.e. in investment, modernization and restructuring projects.