The European network of municipalities Energie-Cites and the Bulgarian Municipal Energy Efficiency Network EcoEnergy participated jointly in the project "Redirecting Urban areas development towards Sustainable Energy - RUSE" which was finalized in the end of 2007 and was implemented with the financial support of INTERREG 3C of the European Union.
The implementation of the project started in April 2004. Its main goal was to improve Structural Funds (SF) absorption as well as other financial resources in the new EU member-states through their redirection to sustainable energy use projects in the municipalities. It was very important to increase the information awareness and capacity building in the municipal administrations and networks and associations of municipalities in order to achive this goal. The project was implemented under the management of the European municipal network Energie-Cites and the financial support of EU INTERREG 3C Program for transregional and transnational cooperation.
A partnership among 20 EU organizations, candidate member-states and third parties was formed in order to implement the project. The leading organization in this partnership was Energie-Cites - a network of European municipalities working actively in the field of sustainable enegy use and which had rich experience in managing big European projects. There were four main partners - South Bohemia Region in Czech Republic, the Slovak Energy Agency, the Polish Network "Energie-Cites" and the Lithunian Energy Institute. The other participants were 10 European municipalities, energy agencies and three network of municipalities from Bulgaria (EcoEnergy), Romania nad Serbia.
The main project activities were related to exchange of experience and knowledge for the nature of the SF and the type of projects which were being financed; preparation and dissemination of good practices for SF absorption for sustainable energy use projects; providing information to municipalities and other organziations. In addition to the traditional ways for information dissemination - brochures, website, e-newsletter and seminars, the project gave opportunity for exchange of experience in practice in the municipalities from the new EU member-states and EU candidate countries and ensuring of real circumstances and conditions for effective use of the SF financial resources for their sustainable development. This was accomplished through Study Tours and Hosting Staffs in European municipalities with good experience in this field. A rich database of good practices from the European municipalities and the new EU member-states and candidates has been developed. Help desks for supporting municipalities in SF absorption have been established.
An additional financing was necessary for EcoEnergy so that it could participate as main partner in all project activities and its member municipalities could take part in the exchange of experience. An inquiry was sent tot he Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works and the project was included as a priority one in the Additional Memorandum list under the PHARE Program. An agreement for grand of 75% was signed on 20 November 2006.
More information about the project you can find
here.
