How the Joint Technical Secretariat in Lille experiences the INTERREG IVC Miniprogram EnercitEE

Authors:Johanna Bähn (Finance Officer) and Silke Brocks (Project Officer), INTERREG IVC Joint Technical Secretariat

“Learning by sharing – EnercitEE to INTERREG IVC”

This final edition of the EnercitEE newsletter is an opportunity for INTERREG IVC to look back at what the project has contributed to the programme. 'Regions of Europe sharing solutions' is the tagline of the interregional cooperation programme, and nowhere is this more evident than in projects such as EnercitEE. Regions with different approaches to energy strategies, all facing the same challenge to meet the 20-20-20 energy targets, worked together to find the most adapted responses. At INTERREG IVC, we call this 'learning by sharing'. Interregional cooperation is one of the most effective tools available for regions to improve their own policies and instruments, without starting from scratch.
We are happy to see that the EnercitEE results have surpassed some of their initial targets: more good practices were identified, more staff members increased their knowledge in this domain than previously envisaged and the project has resulted in several spin-off activities. Even more than that, we are delighted to see that at least five regional policies have been improved. For instance, the Regional Development Strategy of Lower Silesia has been subject to a major update in 2012. Thanks to the EnercitEE partners, the new strategy includes the suggestion to establish a regional energy agency. For the programme, this is a clear example of the benefits of cooperation. These remarkable results would not have been possible without the extremely committed regional partners of EnercitEE which mobilised 47 sub-project partners in 11 sub-projects. We also had the chance to witness personally the high professionalism and very warm and friendly cooperation spirit of the partners during the meetings that we had the opportunity to attend.

The EnercitEE partnership was one of 204 interregional cooperation projects financed - a select group considering the programme received more than 1350 applications in the 2007-2013 period. In total, more than 2350 public organisations are involved in cooperation projects across ten different thematic areas. Given the 'critical mass' of projects and partners dealing with similar issues, the programme set itself the objective to capitalise on the good practices identified by the projects it finances. The programme thematic capitalisation exercise focuses on collecting, analysing and disseminating the thematic knowledge gained from projects working on the same topic. The aim is to exploit the resulting knowledge for the benefit of local and regional authorities across Europe, and to help policymakers have a better impact at local, regional and European levels.
EnercitEE was one of 12 projects working in the domain of ‘Energy Efficiency’. The good practices identified by the EnercitEE partners, and others, were subject to expert analysis and benchmarking. After one year, the first report – available at www.interreg4c.eu/capitalisation – provides a comprehensive state-of-the-art of energy efficiency policy in Europe. Several EnercitEE good practices are highlighted as particularly beneficial for other regions.

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We would like to thank all EnercitEE partners for these valuable results and in particular for the very good and enjoyable cooperation over the past 4 years.