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Covenant of Mayors - Europe

Financing opportunities



Shared management funds European Funding Programmes Technical assistance and advisory support Financial Institutions Instruments Alternative Financing Schemes

Support services

Shared management funds European Funding Programmes Technical assistance and advisory support Financial Institutions Instruments Alternative Financing Schemes

Smart Cities Marketplace (SCM)

The Smart Cities Marketplace is a European Commission platform bringing all urban actors together, to support the green, digital and just transition in cities, with a focus on small and mid-sized municipalities. The platform collaborates closely with the Covenant of Mayors, the EU City Facility (see below) and many other initiatives. It offers hands-on capacity building and know-how, and features an integrated Explore-Shape-Deal Matchmaking process to help exploring the possibilities, shaping project ideas, and closing a deal for financing with any of the members of the Smart Cities Marketplace’s Investor Network – a steadily growing catalogue of opportunities.

European City Facility (EUCF)

The pan-European City Facility is set up under Horizon 2020. The EUCF supports municipalities, their groupings, as well as local public entities aggregating them across Europe to develop investment concepts and accelerate investments in sustainable energy. With a 60,000 € grant, the EUCF finances services and activities to support the development of investment concepts, such as (technical) feasibility studies, analyses of the market analyses, of the stakeholders, of the risks, legal, economic and financial analyses, etc. The grant is not meant to directly finance investments.

NextGenerationEU

NextGenerationEU (NGEU) is the temporary instrument designed to boost the recovery, as part of the largest stimulus package ever financed in Europe. The Facility is available to member states but can also serve to finance local projects.

Recovery and Resilience Facility

The Facility is a temporary recovery instrument that allows the Commission to raise funds to help repair the immediate economic and social damage brought about by the coronavirus pandemic. It finances recovery and resilience plans submitted by Member States, including reforms and investments to be implemented by end of 2026. More information.

NextGenerationEU Green Bonds

Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) labelled bonds are a fast-growing segment in capital markets. The two most popular types of ESG-labelled bonds are social bonds and green bonds. As part of NextGenerationEU the European Commission’s will issue 30% of the NGEU Facility as green bonds. The objective of these bonds is:

  • Providing access to a wide range of investors, in particular ESG-focused investors, in line with the objectives of the NextGenerationEU funding strategy.
  • Boosting the size of the green bonds’ market and inspire more issuers to issue green bonds.
  • Increasing the financial flows to green technologies with risk potential, thus benefitting the real economy in the longer run, thanks to the increased availability of a safe and sizeable green asset to diversify green investments. Investments in riskier green projects can be balanced out with safe NextGenerationEU green bonds.

 

Useful links

We are sharing the key publications, including best practices from the Covenant of Mayors, lessons learned and useful reports from the main EU institutions. Multiple publications are only available to the mayoral community and can be accessed through the Private Area Resource Library (MyCovenant) of this website.

In particular, we have created a series of four leaflets that guide you through a wide range of financing and funding opportunities for your energy and climate measures:

  1. Innovative Financing Schemes
  2. Project Development Assistance
  3. EU Funding Programme
  4. Financial Institutions Instruments

 

Financing climate action: Cities and regions investing in energy - Committee of the Regions

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