Brussels, 25/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - Negotiations have begun for allocating the promised €58 million in the call for tenders for Community Smart Energy Programmes. Forty-four projects were selected out of the 349 proposals put on the table by almost 3,000 organisations in the 27 member states of the EU, Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway and Croatia. Almost half of the candidates were SMEs, followed by a substantial number of public authorities and NGOs. For the second consecutive year, the number of projects in the transport domain rose significantly. Negotiations are expected to continue until March.
With € 730 million funds available between 2007 and 2013, the Intelligent Energy - Europe (IEE) programme reinforces the EU's efforts to meet its 2020 energy targets to ensure a secure and cost competitive supply of energy while fighting climate change. The programme runs annual calls for proposals and its funding covers up to 75% of the eligible project costs. To date, nearly 450 projects have been co-financed by the programme. The list of the 44 eligible projects for 2010 is available at the following address: ec.europa.eu/energy/intelligent/doc/iee_selected_projects_2010.pdf. (E.H./transl.fl)