Brussels, 15/12/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 15 December, the European Commission and the European Investment Bank (EIB) launched a grant aid initiative to help local and regional authorities make investments in energy efficiency, renewable energy and sustainable transport. The global fight against climate change is a top priority for the European Union and, since it is acknowledged that local actors will play a significant role in meeting this challenge, the European Local Energy Assistance (ELENA) facility is designed to help cities and regions, with the provision of technical assistance, to structure and implement projects in the most efficient way so they can attract outside finance. Projects will be assessed by engineers and economists at the EIB. The technical assistance will be funded from the Intelligent Energy Europe II (IEE) programme. A budget of €15 million euro will be available for the facility's first year of operation. Stating that ELENA will complement the Covenant of Mayors, which has seen more than 1000 European cities, local authorities and regions pledge to reduce their CO2 emissions by more than the EU target of 20% by 2020, European Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said he was sure that the ELENA facility would provide cities and regions with “the best opportunity to mobilise all efforts, financial resources and actors needed to contribute to our European targets”. (E.H./transl.rt)