European City Facility: More than 220 applications

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On 31 May 2021, the European City Facility (EUCF) celebrated the successful closing of its second call with more than 220 applications from municipalities and local authorities across Europe.

The second call for applications of the EUCF was open to municipalities, local authorities, their groupings and local public entities aggregating municipalities/local authorities, from 29 March to 31 May 2021. The call was organised in parallel for three geographic regions of the EU-27 Member States, the EEA-EFTA States (Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein) and the United Kingdom. The highest number of applications came from Southern Europe (40 %), followed by Central and Eastern Europe (37 %) and the Nordic Countries and Western Europe (23 %). The great interest for both EUCF calls across the three regions demonstrates the relevance and need for the simplified, rapid and tailor-made technical and financial support provided by the EUCF to convert climate and energy plans into sound investment packages.

In the second call, increased resources are available to support 69 successful applicants (in comparison to 30 in the first call) to develop investment concepts across the three regions:

Central and Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia), with up to 26 beneficiaries;
Nordic countries and Western Europe (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom), with up to 24 beneficiaries; and
Southern Europe (Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Spain), with up to 19 beneficiaries.

Next steps

Within the upcoming months, the dedicated evaluation team of the EUCF will evaluate the applications submitted in the second call. The results will be published in August 2021. More information about the evaluation process and evaluation criteria can be found in the EUCF Guidelines for Applicants.

Successful applicants receive financial support in the form of a 60,000 euro grant as well as capacity building services to develop sound investment concepts and consequently mobilise finance to implement their sustainable energy projects. Unsuccessful applicants are encouraged to revise their applications and resubmit them in the third call for applications, opening in autumn 2021.

As part of the EUCF team, adelphi research greatly appreciates the huge interest for the EUCF amongst European municipalities and is looking forward to accompanying the successful applicants of the second call in their EUCF journey!