Periodic Reporting for period 3 - EUCF (European City Facility) Reporting period: 2021-08-01 to 2022-07-31 Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project The ultimate objective of the European City Facility (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. Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far To be able to provide financial support to cities and their groupings, the consortium needed to prepare the ground to allow potential beneficiaries to get support from the EUCF, through open and widely disseminated and attractive calls.The following activities were undertaken during the first three years:• Definition of the governance structures and meetings of the core management team and Strategic Board• Selection and establishment of formal agreements with country experts (CE) and national cities networks (NNs)• Organisation of webinars for CE and NN - training sessions• Official Launch of the EUCF during the Sustainable Energy Investment Forum, with EASME/CINEA and DG ENER• Organisation of national webinars - Originally planned as national workshops, due to COVID 19 and to the lockdown period faced across the whole World, NN organised the national info-sessions online.• Definition of the eligibility of applicants• Definition of the support – geographical coverage and funds allocation• Allocation of funds per region• Definition of the calls for proposals to the EUCF and application process;• Definition of the evaluation process• Development of investment concept template• Definition of the support to third parties (lump sum based)• Development of a model of a Grant Agreement to be signed between EUCF and beneficiaries• Developing a comprehensive Helpdesk Strategy and Complaint Mechanism• Developing Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) with regular update • Develop and launch the Facility Management Platform• Massive promotion of th EUCF through national and European channels (e.g. Covenant of Mayors), reaching more than 10.000 cities• Launch of the 1st call for proposals• Evaluation and ranking of applications• Grant Agreement preparation phases with 30 selected applicants• Signature of 30 EUCF Grant Agreements (Samsoe, Mórahalom,Cottonera,Visaginas, Sztum, Castel San Pietro Terme, Isola Vicentina, Gyöngyös, Nyborg,Horst aan de Maas, Hódmezővásár hely, Rheden, Pinerolo Area,Waalwijk, Karlovac, Velika Gorica, Piaseczno, Dobrich, Veszprém, Westland, Olot, Rijeka,Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead,Ravenna, Cascais, Rostock, Coventry,Malaga, Leeds,Schaerbeek)• Development of 30 investment concepts (call 1)• Preparation of the 2nd call for applications (incl. Strategic Board, Investment Advisory Group and country experts meetings)• Launch of 2nd call for applications and organisation of 28 national webinars and a general launch and peer-to-peer event • General dissemination of the 2nd call (e.g Covenant of Mayors signatories, Committee of the Regions)• Starting of the evaluation process of the 221 applications received• Closing of the 2nd call and selection of 2nd call beneficiaries, including the signatures of 68 grant agreements to develop investments concepts.• Development of 68 investment concepts (call 2), including monitoring and support to beneficiaries by country experts (e.g. 118 bilateral meetings)• Submission and validation of the first 15 investment concepts of call 1 (out of 30), applying a thorough documents check and validation procedure and criteria • Survey to call 1 beneficiaries (23 respondents)• Preparation and launch of the 3rd and 4th call for applications (Strategic Board and country experts meetings and trainings, a general launch event per call with a total of 179 attendees)• Organisation of 48 national webinars (29 for call 3, 17 for call 4) by the national city networks• Massive dissemination of the 3rd and 4th call (Covenant of Mayors, social media, press releases translated into national languages. public and external EU events, promotion by national city networks and country experts)• Closing of the 3rd call and evaluation of 166 submitted applications • Selection of 3rd call beneficiaries, including signature of 67 grant agreements.• Development of 67 investment concepts (call 3), including monitoring and support to beneficiaries by country experts (e.g. 34 bilateral meetings so far)• Continuous updating, optimisation and maintenance of the functionalities of the EUCF website user zone (Facility Management Platform) and monitoring of the helpdesk to support EUCF applicants and beneficiaries • General communication and dissemination of the first EUCF results, including two investor reports based on call 2 and 3 selected beneficiaries Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far) Expected results:The EUCF will support the development of more than 200 investment concepts, which aim to trigger at least 320 M Euros of private and public investment in sustainable energy projects in cities and their grouping in EU 27 + UK + EEA-EFTA States of Liechtenstein, Iceland and Norway eucf-logoblue.jpg
