Towards a climate neutral EU:
efficient allocation of EU funds

Narrative

Regional Centres for Sustainable Energy (hereinafter RCUEs) will ensure the coordination of energy development in self-government at district level (i.e. respective strategic planning regions). They are part of an integrated system of support for the transposition of national climate and energy goals of the Slovak Republic to regional and local levels. The necessary conditions for fulfilling Slovakia's most ambitious political commitment - to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 - are to subordinate public (not only energy) policy to a new hierarchy of energy priorities and to create a system of effective and comprehensive coordination of sustainable energy at regional level. RCUEs represent new professional capacities of local governments in subregions (i.e., respective urban development areas). These two measures, together with the creation of energy units in self-governing regions and energy managers at the level of local government, should form the framework of a future system of regional energy development. The Centres should bring: 1) creation and implementation of low-carbon strategies in subregions; 2) provision of support services to local governments within subregions; 3) transfer of experience, information and examples of good practice; and 4) support for education and training, and the operation of subregional energy information systems.

Financial data

Total funding: EUR 44.6 million. New Operational Programme draft to be funded from ESIF 2022-2027: EUR 44.6 million.

Recommendations

Keep the programme as it was designed, and increase support. The main mission of the Regional Centres for Sustainable Energy is to ensure systematic regional planning of the decarbonisation process. It is necessary to find a way to maintain this mission without purposefully distorting and/or reducing the provision of technical assistance for the implementation of ESI Funds. We recommend that ministries: 1) assess the situation of socially vulnerable households with the highest presumption of use of various unsuitable fuels; 2) in measure 2.7.8. of the Slovakia Operational Programme, they made grant support conditional on the improvement of the thermal properties of buildings and extended support to renewable energy sources based on the identified situation. For support from OP Slovakia and the Modernisation Fund, we recommend: 1) develop a long-term solution based on savings and renewables. Each district-supported heating project should include a decarbonisation plan with a view to 2050; and 2) first, address the reduction of energy needs by combining building renovations and the modernisation of distribution systems with district heating - ideally, fourth-generation heat supply systems; and 3) increase support for more efficient and innovative systems and withdraw support for fossil gas and unsustainable biomass resources.

Information sources

Other info

https://cepa.priateliazeme.sk/nas-archiv/spravy/1269-regionalne-centra-udrzatelnej-energetiky

https://www.udrzatelne.sk/aktuality/item/337-tri-odporucania-pre-partnersku-dohodu-a-op-slovensko