12 April 2010

[Brussels, 12th April 2010] - CAN Europe and EEB have asked [1] the European Commission to put its money where its mouth is and allocate the 115million Euros (or more) left unspent from the EU recovery plan towards energy efficiency and environmentally sound renewable energy sources.

The Commission will propose how these funds will be allocated at the end of this month and the green groups point out that ‘projects in the areas of energy efficiency and energy from renewable sources’ [2] were identified by the Commission as being potentially appropriate recipients of unspent funds [3].

Energy efficiency has been presented as a key priority by the Commission and would greatly contribute to the Europe 2020 Strategy currently under discussion. Growth in this area would create local jobs, reduce energy poverty and air pollution, and contribute substantially to lowering carbon emissions.

CAN Europe and EEB are therefore urging the Commission to spend the remaining funds from the European Economic Recovery Plan (EERP) on energy efficiency and renewables, funds which local authorities are more than ready to spend.


Contacts:

Catherine Pearce, EEB Policy Officer on Climate and Environmental Policy Integration + 32 2 289 13 02

Erica Hope, CAN Europe Energy Efficiency Policy Officer, +32 2894 4671
Notes:

[1] Letter: EEB & CAN Europe letter: Unspent European Economic Recovery Funds

[2] Foreseen in the Recovery Plan Regulation 663/2009

[3] As a reaction to last year's financial crisis, the European Commission proposed to reallocate five billion Euros of unspent 2008 EU agricultural funding in the so-called European Economic Recovery Plan. Of this, €3.5 billion (later increased to €3.98 billion) would be devoted to energy projects - notably gas, coal (CCS infrastructure projects) and offshore wind farms.

Today already €115 million under the EU Recovery Plan are unspent and the Commission services expect this to grow to €400 million or more by end of this year.

Meanwhile, many local authorities want to make investments into efficient infrastructure, but are heavily affected by the current credit crunch. See press release (29 March 2010) by the organisation Energie Cites, which coordinates local authority initiatives in the domains of efficiency and decentralised renewables under the Covenant of Mayors.