Letter: NGOs call on Director Generals of DG Regio, Clima and Environment to turn around EU funds programming at half time

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. This is partly due to poor implementation of the Partnership Principle by Member States, which does not only concern environmental NGOs but also environmental authorities. NGOs also received worrying reports from several countries that the European Commission (DG Regio) does not want to consider spending of EU funds on the environment as a thematic priority.