Phase 1: Political Work on European Cohesion Programmes
During phase 1 Structural and Cohesion Fund Programmes for the development of margina¬lised regions in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe are addressed. In a first working step a comprehensive survey on European Cohesion Policies will be undertaken. Their suitability in respect to decentralised energy actions for the development of marginalised regions will be monitored. In a second step a policy platform will merge all experiences gained from the political process. An Action Plan for the promotion of small scale energy actions in the rural environments of Europe will support measures on European, national and regional level within the Cohesion Policies in 2007 and beyond.
Phase 2: Pilot actions in eight selected target regions
Here, best practice for pilot actions in eight selected rural target regions of Eastern and Southern Europe is created. All regions are characterised by a large development potential for innovative and renewable energy actions. The outcome of this phase includes the performance of conception and planning activities for decentralised energy actions resulting in eight Master Plans, one for each region. Thereby a particular focus is on the preparation for the action being relevant of receiving funds in the frame of the European Cohesion Policy after 2006.
Phase 3: Development of funding and co-operation schemes
A main barrier for the implementation of decentralised energy actions is the lack of sufficient funding sources, often due to the small size of projects. Hence, phase 3 will support energy and development agencies in the design of tailor-made funding concepts in the framework of the EC Cohesion Policies. Private investments shall be promoted and facilitated. A concept for suitable co-operation schemes will be designed in order to bundle the energy projects to a sufficient size and to create innovative funding tools. The latter shall provide sufficient Seed Money and shall be attractive for third party investments, too.
Phase 4: Training and capacity building
An intense set of training and awareness raising actions will be implemented comprising ten seminars of different focus. Eight seminars will take place in the target region countries, one special seminar on media work will be held in Hungary and the final project seminar will be in Brussels. These seminars will address project developers, representatives from munici¬pa¬li¬ties, politicians, utilities, energy stakeholders and Energy Service Companies. They will in¬crease the awareness for the development potential of decentralised energy actions and will teach about the possibilities lying in the new Structural Fund Programmes from 2007 to 2013. Consequently, the seminars will be a strong mobilising tool for the regional pilot actions.
Phase 5: Dissemination
In the course of the dissemination activities all previous project phases will find their place, particularly the work on European Cohesion Policies, the pilot action results and the created knowledge on innovative funding and co-operation schemes. All these elements will be brought together in a dissemination campaign (project homepage, newsletters, presentations, publications etc.) boosting direct action in the Structural Fund Programmes after 2006 for an extended support of decentralised energy actions.