In his speech, Mr. Piebalgs congratulated the assembled CoMO staff for the excellent start, referring to the successful signatory ceremony in the European Parliament last month. He also highlighted the need to keep this pace and to put pressure on the signatory cities for meeting their commitment of urpassing the 3x20% objectives. Before officially cutting the CoMO ribbon, Mr. Piebalgs reminded that the success of the Covenant initiative will lie in the hands of a very “proactive” CoMO team.
The office operates as the primary interface for all local governments towards the Covenant of Mayors. It aims:
- to assist all local authorities interested to join
the initiative through the adhesion process
- to help signatories and non-signatories cities
in general or technical inquiries related to the Covenant
of Mayors and its commitments, i.e.: Calculating baseline
emissions ; Preparing Sustainable Energy Action Plans
(SEAPs) ; Organising Local Energy Days ; Monitoring
and reporting on the SEAP implementation
- to assist all organisations interested to become
a Supporting Structure or a Benchmark of Excellence.
The Covenant of Mayors Office, which will ensure the ‘General’ Helpdesk, is answering general questions about
adhesion, signature etc, while the Joint Research Center will ensure the ‘Technical’ Helpdesk concerning more
specific questions related to the SEAPs and CO2 emissions, evaluation and monitoring.
Gérard Magnin, Executive Director of Energie-Cités, considers the COMO as the “kitchen” of the Covenant of
Mayors with the chefs’ responsibility being to
- enlarge the circle of committed cities, to get more and more clients in the Covenant “restaurant”, by creating a
good and convivial atmosphere to encourage more cities to join, act, exchange, etc.
- gather Supporting structures as experienced “chef assistants and waiters”
- transform official commitments of Mayors into very concrete actions and policies
Indeed, Energie-Cités and his partners will use this recipe to prepare a delicious European dish!
Click here for more information on the Covenant of Mayors
RSS
Feed
