Municipalities and local authorities are the driver of the European sustainable energy transition. With tremendous potential to build comprehensive sustainable energy investment programmes, they also play a key role in pooling smaller projects into larger investment portfolios and in mobilising significant financial resources required for the energy transition.

Designed by cities for cities

Set up under the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation of the European Union, the EUCF will unlock this local potential and support local authorities and their groupings with tailor-made, fast and simplified financial support (in the form of EUR 60,000 lump sums) and related services to enable municipalities in Europe to develop relevant investment concepts related to the implementation of actions identiftied in their climate and energy action plans.

Successful applicants to the EUCF will use the lump sum to develop their investment concepts, which represents an initial step towards a fully-fledged business and financial plan. The ultimate objevtive is to build a substantial pipeline of sustainable energy investment projects across municipalities in Europe.
 

EUCF shall:

• Provide cities with concrete technical and financial expertise, anchored at local level to allow the development of at least 225 viable and modular investment plans, which can generate more than 320 million euros in public and private investment.
• Train at least 450 employees of local communities in order to create a substantial reserve of projects and offer them tools, a network and knowledge sharing opportunities that will facilitate and accelerate the implementation of investment plans , including through innovative financing schemes and project aggregation.
• Facilitate access, to municipalities, to private financial flows, to European or similar funding (such as the European Structural and Investment Funds, assistance in the development of H2020 projects, or even the ELENA system) and to advisory services such as the "Advisory Hub" of the European Investment Bank to implement and amplify the expected investments.

EUCF is implemented by a consortium made up of several European networks of local authorities and specialized agencies (Energy cities, Climate Alliance, Fedarene, Adelphi, Enviros E.). This consortium has delegated promotion and support activities in each of the countries concerned.

In France, the AFCCRE and the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Énergie Environnement regional agency are responsible for promoting and supporting this initiative with French local authorities.

This system will thus be implemented within the framework of 4 calls for projects published throughout the project and whose submission conditions are simplified as much as possible.

[Updated on June 2020 ]