EU

This toolkit provides EU funds practitioners, whether it be relevant officials in municipalities, potential EU funds grantees, local communities, civil society organisations or interested members of the public, with an overview of all the legal regulations related to environmental mainstreaming and sustainable development that have been introduced into the forthcoming EU budgetary period of 2014-2020. In practical terms, coverage is provided, too, of the relevant environmental mainstreaming strategies and mechanisms.

At the present stage, the Partnership Agreements and the Operational Programmes for the next Cohesion Policy period (2014-2020) are not proving to be sufficient for effectively catalysing the EU's transition towards resource efficient, renewable energy based economies. In this letter to the Director Generals for Regional Policy, Environment and Climate Change, European environmental NGOs raise their worries over the Programming of EU Funds in EU Member States. The main concern is that environmental priorities are not being properly addressed.

Regional and local governments, communities and local action groups are able to receive financial support from the 2014 – 2020 EU budget to finance energy efficiency and renewable energy projects in their communities. This briefing outlines how an optimal public-private financing mix, including European funding, can look and how it can be developed with the involvement of local stakeholders.