During the round table discussion it became clear that new member states face similar barriers preventing them to allocate more money to energy efficiency and renewable energy measures. These are mainly linked to national legislation framework, state aid rules and complicated administrative procedures for EU-funded projects. A set of recommendations for European and national decision makers as well as beneficiaries was drafted with the aim to improve the absorption of the EU funds and their use for climate protecting measures.
All participants, along with representatives of local authorities from Armenia, Moldova, Ukraine, Georgia (CIUDAD MODEL project) then participated in a study visit to Brno – Novy Liskovec which is one of the most advanced Czech municipalities in the field of energy savings and the use of Structural Funds and national schemes for energy efficiency projects.
The municipality started an extensive refurbishment of multi-apartment buildings (concrete blocks of flats), schools, municipal buildings and in particular social housing already in 2000, achieving in average 60-70% cuts in energy consumption.
Ms Jana Drapalova, the mayor, presented her major achievements: refurbishment of nearly all municipal buildings to low energy standard, private buildings refurbished thanks to the communication and awareness raising activities carried out by the municipal employees, creation of a new revolving fund for energy efficiency, development of bicycle lanes and green public spaces in co-decision making process with the citizens, better integration of socially disadvantaged groups or support for a short circuit distribution of local food products, etc.
“People value more than money”, stated Ms Drapalova, estimating that motivated and skilled municipal employees and local volunteers are the main success factors.
Representatives of Managing Authorities, impressed by these achievements, hope to better support similar projects within the current and future programming period.
The round table discussion and study visit were organised by Energy Cities and Austrian Energy Agency in the framework of the IEE-funded SF Energy Invest project.
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