Open Letter to Ministers on the Multi-Annual Financial Framework: Towards an EU budget that will serve to achieve Europe’s climate objectives

The Members of the Political Board of the European Covenant of Mayors call upon Member States, in the ongoing trilogue on the Energy Union Governance regulation, to include the needs of local and regional governments.

Illustration : Frederic Köberl

Ahead of the General Affairs Council meeting on 16 October 2018, business associations, think tanks and civil society urge EU ministers to align the next future EU budget with the Paris Agreement and the UN development goals.

The open letter signed by 101 organisations, and sent today to EU ministers of European and Foreign Affairs demands a dramatic improvement of climate action spending in the future EU budget. More money should be invested in the clean energy and transport transition, ecosystem protection and sustainable farming, and solid safeguards are needed to ensure climate compatibility of all funding programmes.

The IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C shows the urgency of tackling runaway climate change, and that we still have the capacity to avoid the worst impacts of climate change and its huge economic costs. With its multiple funding programmes for energy, transport, agriculture, buildings, waste and international cooperation, the EU budget has great potential to better support the just transition to clean and sustainable economies throughout Europe and the world.