Local Leaders for the Next Generation

The countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), which were once part of the former Eastern bloc, are not yet fully exploiting their considerable potential in the field of renewable energy. For example, the EU provides them with extensive funding through its "Next Generation EU" recovery fund and the new EU budget to close the energy transition gap – provided that the region uses innovative investment models. However, these countries often perceive the social and economic impacts of ambitious climate and energy policies as negative. This may be partly due to the fact that the benefits of such measures are not made sufficiently visible. Accordingly, local authorities need support through guidance and training for the implementation of practical solutions and high-quality EU-funded project development. Moreover, already existing initiatives to promote energy transition in CEE need to be better integrated and their successes made more visible.

Advocating for just transition in central and eastern Europe, ©Bankwatch

The project aimed to accelerate the energy transition and decarbonisation in the Central and Eastern European countries Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Slovakia, Czechia, and Hungary by strategically utilising EU funds. The project team first analysed local needs, potentials, and benefits of climate investments and informed municipalities and authorities about best practice examples from the region as well as from Germany, which could serve as models. In addition to providing advice, the team worked with local authorities and encouraged them to take a leading role in the energy transition and jointly develop ways to achieve the goals of the EU Green Deal. In cooperation with governments, municipalities, and civil society, the project team trained local actors to become multipliers and female multipliers of the energy transition and developed high-quality solutions in the field of renewable energy with the help of EU funds. Through collaboration with European allies, such as with members of the European Parliament and the European Commission as well as with representatives of civil society, valuable synergy effects were thus created.

• The report Powering up Central and Eastern Europe – How the EU should step up published in the final spurt towards the 2024 EU elections had a notable reach of over 2,500 political decision-makers, CEE NGOs and Just Transition communities via direct distribution and over 219,000 people reached through the project partners' social media channels. The report analyses the progress made by CEE countries in the previous five years regarding energy transition, highlighting the region's vital contribution to Europe's energy development and offering recommendations on how to accelerate the energy transition in CEE. 
• 350 local authorities from Just Transition regions participated in different fora, gained know-how on EU-funded energy transition projects, exchanged best practices, and were empowered to implement sustainable solutions and avoid inefficient approaches. Particularly effective was the publication of an EU funds guidebook, whose translation into seven national languages (Bulgarian, Czech, Estonian, Hungarian, Latvian, Polish and Slovak), significantly increased its reach and effectiveness. 
• More than 15 specific recommendations for new measures and improvements in existing measures were accepted by the governments in the national REPowerEU chapters. In Poland, for example, allocation for energy communities was nearly doubled, which will allow for support of 61 additional communities. Support for electricity grids was increased as well as for capacity-building and green skills projects, while allocation for fossil gas investments was cut by half compared to the original draft. In Czechia and Hungary, this advocacy effort led to the abandonment of fossil gas projects as part of the REPowerEU plans as a whole, whereas in Poland these investments could be reduced to one-third of the originally planned scope. In Bulgaria, three of the project partners' proposals made it into the final Territorial Just Transition Plan: support for prosumers (energy consumers who are also energy producers), support measures for energy communities and creation of a working group with local actors to monitor the implementation of the plan.