Our vision of the European City Facility (EUCF) is one where European cities have their say on how the EUCF financial support will be used to meet their needs and help them overcome barriers they face in financing and implementing their ambitious energy and climate strategies. The ultimate objective of the EUCF is to build a substantial pipeline of sustainable energy investment projects across cities in Europe. This will be achieved by providing targeted financial, technical, legal and capacity building support to overcome critical barriers, develop credible investment packages and mobilise finance. Delivering this will require organisational, technical and financial innovation, in particular to bridge the capacity and capability gap for small and medium-sized municipalities. The specific objectives are to: - Provide hands-on locally rooted technical and financial expertise, inspired by ‘best in class’ European practice, to cities to deliver at least 225 credible and scalable investment concepts (hereafter referred to as IC) which should trigger more than EUR 320 M of public and private investment. - Build the capacity of at least 450 public authority staff to develop substantial project pipelines and provide them with tools, networking and knowledge transfer opportunities which will facilitate and accelerate the IC implementation, including via innovative financing mechanisms and project aggregation. - Facilitate access especially for small and medium-sized municipalities to private finance, EU funding streams and similar facilities (e.g. ESIF, H2020-PDA, Elena-EIB) and advisory services such as the EIB Advisory Hub to realise and amplify the expected investments. - Use the successful IC and knowledge of EUCF beneficiaries to reach out to more than 8,000 cities and communities, encourage replication and catalyse further action across European cities.

mPOWER will enable in-depth, wide-scale and systematic peer-to-peer learning programme between at least 100 local public authorities with a view to replicate innovative best practice in municipal energy. European cities, particularly in Germany, Denmark and France, are municipal energy innovators running distribution networks, supply companies, renewable generation, citizen participation processes and finance for energy projects. Other cities across Europe are investigating their options for municipal energy and are looking to learn. mPOWER will map existing municipal energy policy and identify innovations, best practice, as well as obstacles and barriers. The action will enable participant authorities across Europe to (a) learn from replicable best practices, (b) recognise risks, obstacles and blockages, (c) identify and commit to replication pathways that best suit local needs, (d) incubate at least 30 new and improved municipal energy policies and projects within the project duration. Lessons learnt will be disseminated publicly and through target networks in easily accessible format for replication. 30 cities and city networks from 14 Member States have already expressed interest in participating. An estimated 3.9GWh/year can be saved and 40.8GWh/year renewable capacity installed through replicating practices between participant cities within the action (respectively 9.8GWh/year and 108.8 GWh/year within three years of project end). This can be scaled up around Europe through wider replication, promoted by Energy Cities and partners beyond the project’s lifetime. mPOWER’s project consortium brings access to an active network of cities committed to energy transition (Energy Cities, IPE), experience in energy policy (Platform, Energy Cities, IPE) and energy innovation (Carbon Coop), public services experts (UGLA, Basque University, TNI), and years of innovative peer-learning projects (Platform, TNI, IPE).

EEW4 aims at supporting the engagement of the public sector at all governance levels (Call Part A + partially part B): Supporting public authorities to implement the Energy Union. EEW4 intends to develop narratives for national, regional + local levels. They are key for higher levels of implementation. They combine the aim of decarbonization of EU’s economy with other benefits of energy efficiency, which increase broad acceptance in society for other reasons than climate protection: air quality, modernization, job creation, energy security. Thus, policy instruments are embedded into overarching narratives showing wider benefits for each context. • EEW4 helps MS to fulfil their obligations under EED, taking into account narratives from all across EU. • EEW4 will develop narratives for local, regional and national authorities. • EEW4 addresses all governance levels: the national and EU levels are reached via parliamentary events, surveys with administration representatives; the regional and municipal levels via the network partners Borg&Co/eceee, FEDARENE + EnergyCities. • EEW4 will address all sectors of energy efficiency to represent the full range of benefits. • EEW4 will continuously disseminate project results. It will use stakeholder input for a broad fact base and return the results for testing + dissemination. • EEW4 will enhance political commitment at MS level by creating a broader understanding of the multiple benefits of efficiency. Analysis on poor implementation levels showed, that often in political communication no genuine benefits were used to explain the need for efficiency. Instead, it was referred to ‘enforcement’ of EU directives, an exogeneous matter rather than an intrinsic case. EEW4 aims at breaking this cycle by presenting adequate narratives, case studies on good practice (how to combine policy instruments with supportive narratives), key policy recommendations how to build narratives, by parliamentary, regional and local events.

The overall aim of PROSPECT is to enable peer to peer learning in regional and local authorities in order to finance and implement sustainable energy plans. The learning will empower them to make use of best practices in developing financing for these plans. PROSPECT will address the needs of regional and local authorities through developing a complete peer to peer learning program addressing them. The learning process will be focused on how different sustainable energy projects and measures have been successfully financed. Peer to peer learning involves sharing information and experience from each other through mentoring activities, work shadowing, and study tours, among others. Primarily, the networks Eurocities, Energy Cities and FEDARENE will perform “needs assessment and gaps identifications” with public bodies for learning and match these needs with available best practices. Then PROSPECT will select public authorities and agencies and the roles of trainer and trainees will be assigned. The learning program will be divided into five modules that include development of financing for : i) public buildings, ii) private buildings, iii) public lighting, iv) transport (private and public), and v) cross sectional. The overall estimation is for PROSPECT to launch 5 modules per year (fifteen in total) with an average participation of 15 partners per module. This number can differ depending on the demand there is for each module, but as an average value this can be manageable in terms of teaching requirements. The added value of PROSPECT in comparison to other initiatives is that the learning program is not limited to a capacity building process. Instead, the learning curriculum will follow the project steps of energy efficiency finance from the first stages of its development to monitoring its sustainable operation. The learning program will ideally result to the launch of pilot business models and financing partnerships for implementing sustainable energy plans.

The aim of SCCALE 203050 (Sustainable Collective Citizen Action for a Local Europe) is to scale the growth of energy communities across Europe in the areas of energy efficiency, renewable energy production, district heating and more in households and non-residential buildings. Building on the experience of the cooperative movement and a wide range of cities and municipalities, we will: - Set up at least 25 energy communities, and directly support the replication of the SCCALE methodology in 34 additional communities - Develop a step-by-step guide for potential community leaders to support the creation, maturation and replication of energy communities. - Develop currently specific key performance indicators for community leaders and municipalities to assess the maturity and growth of the energy communities in their territories, and for external partners to assess a community's maturity and financial viability. - Gather proven technical tools and financing models suitable for citizen collective action. - Identify viable contractual models for energy communities and the involved stakeholders. - Encourage the proliferation of energy communities across Europe via a network of experts (including municipalities, SMEs, NGOs and academic institutions) to support new and existing energy communities. - Support policy makers at the European, national and local level in identifying suitable policies to foster the growth of energy communities in Europe through recommendations and discussions with policy makers.