More energy managers and energy efficiency projects thanks to the new Structural Funds rules?

by Jana Cicmanova on 23 July 2009 / 500 visites

As a response to the current crisis, the European Commission has just adopted new measures aimed at simplifying management rules for the Cohesion Policy.

Local authorities aiming to improve their local energy management should consider that:

- Projects under the European Social Fund (ESF) will be reimbursed 100% by the European Commission (on the request of a Member State) by December 2010. This is a Commission’s response on the rapid increase of unemployment in Europe and it will certainly support the creation of green jobs and trainings (e.g. energy managers, technicians, architects, builders, advisory services...)

- There is a possibility to set-up dedicated financial engineering instruments in support of investments in sectors linked to energy efficiency and the use of renewable energies in housing, in addition to the already existing financial engineering instruments for other domains. The Structural Funds will finance:

Urban development funds, that is, funds investing in public private partnerships and other projects included in an integrated plan for sustainable urban development;

Funds or other incentive schemes providing loans, guarantees for repayable investments, or equivalent instruments for energy efficiency and use of renewable energy in buildings, including existing housing.

-The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) will support the renovation or construction of housing for communities faced with social exclusion, particularly Roma, in both rural and urban areas. Previously, the construction of housing was ineligible under the ERDF and only housing in urban areas was eligible for renovation.

-A single category of ’major project’was created under the Cohesion Fund. Previously, the Commission’s approval was required for projects where the total cost exceeded € 25 million for the environment and € 50 million for other sectors. The threshold for approval is now set at € 50 million for all areas. Smaller-scale environmental projects will therefore be able to start up more quickly.

In order to facilitate the adaptation of operational programmes to respond to the current financial and economic crisis, the Member States should provide an analysis justifying the revision of an operational programme instead of an evaluation. This is the unique opportunity to include more measures supporting energy efficiency and use of renewable energy in the operational programmes and/or create new priorities and make the local authorities eligible beneficiaries.

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