Search for the best ETFs and you'll get SPY, QQQ and VTI on nearly every list. Then you open your DEGIRO or Trading 212 account, type the ticker, and the order is rejected.
That's not your broker being difficult. Under the EU's PRIIPs regulation, anyone selling an investment product to a retail client has to hand over a Key Information Document first. US fund managers generally don't produce one, because they have no reason to, so an EU broker isn't permitted to sell you the fund. It's a distribution block, not a ban on owning US funds, and it has applied since January 2018.
The good news is that the European versions exist, track the same indices, and cost roughly the same. Here's the list that actually works from an EU account.
Fund data below from justETF, retrieved 31 July 2026; five-year returns are cumulative unless labelled as annual, in euros, as of end-May 2026. Past performance tells you what happened, not what will.
1. The S&P 500: iShares Core S&P 500 (IE00B5BMR087)
TER 0.07% · Irish · accumulating · ~€129bn
The direct replacement for SPY, and cheaper than it. One thing that confuses people: SXR8, CSPX and CSSPX are the same fund on different exchanges, SXR8 on Xetra in euros, CSPX in London in dollars, CSSPX in Milan. Articles that list them separately are listing one fund three times. Vanguard's equivalent, VUAA (IE00BFMXXD54), charges the identical 0.07%.
Five-year return: +84% in euros. Same 500 companies as SPY, same index, same concentration in the US megacaps at the top.
2. The whole world in one line: Vanguard FTSE All-World (IE00BK5BQT80)
TER 0.14% · Irish · accumulating · ~€45bn
VWCE is the single-fund answer: developed and emerging markets, roughly 3,600 companies, one order. Vanguard cut the fee from 0.19% to 0.14% in July 2026, which tells you how competitive this corner has become, BlackRock and Xtrackers both launched 0.12% rivals in spring 2026, though at a fraction of the size for now.
Five-year return: +71% in euros. Lower than the S&P alone, which is exactly what global diversification looked like in a period the US won.
3. The two-fund version: iShares Core MSCI World + EM IMI
IE00B4L5Y983 (IWDA/EUNL), TER 0.20% · IE00BKM4GZ66 (EIMI/IS3N), TER 0.18%
If you'd rather control the emerging-market weight yourself, this is the standard pair: developed markets in one fund, emerging in the other, and you decide the split. More admin than VWCE, more control over what you own.
Five-year returns: +75% for World, +46% for emerging markets. That gap is the entire argument for and against holding EM, depending on which decade you look at.
4. If you want the tech tilt: iShares Nasdaq 100 (IE00B53SZB19)
TER 0.30% · Irish · accumulating · ~€22bn
The QQQ replacement, sold as CNDX in London and SXRV on Xetra. Invesco's EQQQ tracks the same index at the same fee, but note that EQQQ is distributing, if you want the accumulating version, the ticker is EQAC (IE00BFZXGZ54), not EQQQ.
Five-year return: +97% in euros, the best on this list. It is also the most concentrated: one hundred non-financial Nasdaq companies, heavily weighted to a handful of them. The return and the concentration are the same fact.
5. Something that isn't American: Amundi Stoxx Europe 600 (LU0908500753)
TER 0.07% · Luxembourg · accumulating · ~€20bn
Every fund above is dominated by US companies, including the "world" ones. If you want European exposure deliberately rather than as a rounding error, LYP6 covers 600 European companies for the same seven basis points as the S&P trackers.
Five-year return: +63% in euros.
A note on bonds
The usual building block is a global aggregate bond fund hedged to euros, AGGH / EUNA (IE00BDBRDM35), TER 0.10%. Its five-year return is −8%, which is not a typo: the 2022 rate shock was the worst bond market in decades. That number is why "bonds are the safe part" needs qualifying. They're less volatile than equities over long periods, not immune.
Accumulating or distributing?
Accumulating funds reinvest dividends inside the fund; distributing ones pay you cash. Mechanically, accumulating is simpler, no cash sitting idle between the pay date and your next order, no commission on reinvesting €14, no fractional-share rounding. Every fund on this list is accumulating unless noted.
The complication is tax, and it's genuinely local: accumulation is often described as deferring tax, but several European countries tax accumulating funds annually anyway on a deemed basis (Germany's Vorabpauschale, the Dutch Box 3 system). Whether deferral exists where you live is a question for someone who knows your tax code, not a fund-selection rule.
Why the exciting picks from the old list aged badly
The previous version of this article recommended ARKK, the innovation fund, and BITQ, a basket of crypto-industry companies. Neither is available from an EU broker anyway, and one of them is worth being specific about, because it's the most useful thing here.
ARKK's ten-year record is positive, around +16% a year. Its five-year record is −8.9% a year, and its drawdown from the February 2021 peak reached −77%, which it had still not recovered five and a half years later (figures as of 30 June 2026). That's not an argument that ARKK is a bad fund. It's an argument that a "top picks for next year" list is the wrong format for something with that risk profile, the same fund is a triumph or a disaster depending entirely on which twelve months you bought it in.
If you do want thematic crypto exposure from an EU account, the UCITS route is VanEck Crypto and Blockchain Innovators (IE00BMDKNW35, DAPP/DAVV), TER 0.65%, down 18% over five years, because it launched at the 2021 peak. Spot bitcoin cannot be a UCITS fund at all (UCITS requires diversification, and one asset isn't diversified); European access is through ETPs such as iShares' IB1T, which are debt securities rather than funds. Know which one you're holding.
The honest summary
For a lot of people the whole decision comes down to one all-world fund, bought regularly, held. Everything above that is preference, a US tilt, a tech tilt, a European tilt, some bonds. The differences between 0.07% and 0.20% matter far less than whether you keep buying when the number is red.
You don't have to take that on faith. Our what-if calculator shows what investing a fixed amount every month would have done on real historical prices, and the backtester lets you test any rule you're tempted by against simply holding.
Fund facts are as sourced on 31 July 2026 and change. Check the ISIN on your broker or the fund page before buying. This is educational content, not investment advice.