(LIFE) European City Facility (EUCF), financed under the LIFE Programme, is the new and enhanced chapter of the already successful European City Faciliy, financed under the H2020 programme. We will keep providing tailored technical and financial support to municipalities for their sustainable energy projects.
The European City Facility (EUCF) is set up under the LIFE Programme of the European Union: tailor-made, rapid and simplified financial support (in the form of max. EUR 60,000 lump sum) and related services will be provided to a large number of municipalities in the European Union, Iceland, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Ukraine, to enable them to develop relevant investment concepts.
Municipalities play a key role in a sustainable European energy transition. They have a tremendous potential to build comprehensive sustainable energy investment programs (i.e. investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy). They also play a key role in pooling smaller projects into larger investment portfolios and in mobilizing the significant financial resources required for the energy transition.
Although the potential is immense, there are fundamental obstacles. In many cases, there is a lack of credible, robust and sufficiently mature investment concepts (including identification of the potential project pipeline, legal analysis, governance analysis, basic financing strategy, and roadmap for implementation). However, such investment concepts are an initial prerequisite for access to different sources of funding.
In this context, EUCF addresses two fundamental barriers for sustainable energy investments:
The resulting investment concepts will represent an initial step towards a fully-fledged business and financial plan and – in this way – facilitate the subsequent mobilization of (local) investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy. Sources of funding may come from the private sector, but also from other EU-funded instruments such as the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF), various Project Development Assistance (PDA) facilities, such as the ELENA facility of the European Investment Bank, or various national investment platforms.
The new phase of the European City Facility builds on the success of previous calls, which have supported more than 400 local authorities across Europe in developing investment concepts for sustainable energy actions. The first 330 of these to finalise their Investment Concepts are collectively working towards 32 Billion EUR in investment, with 1.8 Billion reported as already secured.
The application procedure for upcoming calls will be similar – but not identical – to earlier funding rounds. One change which has already been confirmed is that the new calls will also include an opportunity to apply with actions supporting local heating and cooling plans, as well as the traditional requirements of actions being taken on energy efficiency or clean energy in support of local Sustainable Energy and Climate Plans (SECAPs) – or similar plans.
Confirmed details on the upcoming calls, including confirmed call dates, application procedures, national support systems and adjustments from earlier calls, will be shared through the EUCF Call Alert, the European City Facility website and the Facility’s LinkedIn page.
The LIFE EUCF project is co-funded by the LIFE Programme of the European Union.
Views and opinions expressed are however those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or CINEA. Neither the European Union nor CINEA can be held reponsible for them.
Project Manager
The LIFE EUCF 3.0 is looking for its next Finnish National Hub to support Finnish local authorities in advancing in their energy and climate transition. Don't miss this opportunity!
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