I had the chance to participate in a joint IEE & INTERREG meeting organised by INTERACT and EACI. The meeting took place in Brussels from 18 to 19 May 2011. The aim was to bring together different programmes and projects dealing with Energy Efficiency and renewable energy sources.

It was great to see the variety of Intelligent Energy – Europe (IEE) projects presented there. IEE is a European tool for funding action to move towards a more energy intelligent Europe.

Besides energy agencies funded by IEE a wide range of projects were present. Among others a projects supporting communities that signed the Covenant of Mayors such as COME2COM or ENGAGE. Other IEE projects aim at bringing together experienced and less experienced local authorities in implementing Energy Efficiency actions such as LEAP or CONURBANT. All projects can be further discovered in the IEE database.

Besides IEE projects representatives of INTERREG IVB and INTERREG IVC  were present and contributed to the discussion.

EnercitEE was the only INTERREG IVC project being present at this meeting. I had the chance to talk to the Lead Partners of INTERREG IVB project dealing in a very broad sense with energy and energy efficiency, e.g. e-harbors aiming at creating a more sustainable energy model in harbour regions on the basis of innovative intelligent energy networks or SMALLEST a project aiming at enabling rural communities throughout the Northern Periphery region to access micro renewable energy solutions more effectively.

This meeting was a great chance to get to know the wide range of European projects and we opened the floor for fruitful discussions. Through this kind of meetings we have the possibility to exchange experience and finally consider joint activities.

PS: in Brussels itself I also came across good practice – in this case on electric mobility…