PARTNERS P1."STRIA“South Transdanubian Regional Innovation Agency Non-for-profit Ltd. Hungary www.ddriu.hu P2. Kainuun Etu ltd (Finland) Phone: +358 44 551 4536 www.kainuunetu.fi P3. SAENA - Saxon Energy Agency (Germany) Phone: +49 0351 4910 3169 www.saena.de P4. ARGEM - Regional Management Agency of Energy Region of Murcia (Spain) Phone: +34 968 223 831 www.argem.es P5. SARGA, S.L.U, Government of Aragon (Spain) Phone: +34 976 070 00 www.sarga.es P6. ARLEG - Regional Development Agency, Legnica (Poland) Phone: +48 76 862 2777 www.arleg.eu P7. BMW Regional Assembly The Square, Ballaghadereen, Co. Roscommon Phone: +353 94 9862970 www.cua.ie P8. MWRA - Mid-West Regional Authority (Ireland) Phone: +353 (0)67 33197 www.mwra.ie P9. Local Government of Mohács (Hungary) Phone: +36 06 69/505-546 www.mohacs.hu BMW Regional Assembly The Square, Ballaghadereen, County Roscommon Phone: +353 94 9862970 www.cua.ie CONTACT www.steproject.eu [email protected] Improving Communities’ Sustainable Energy Policy Tools 1st January 2012 – 31th December 2014 THE OBJECTIVES ABOUT THE PROJECT STEP is an INTERREG IVC project under priority 2: Environment and Risk Prevention/Energy and Sustainable Transport. It was selected in 2011 during the INTERREG IVC 4th call and has received 1.2 million euro funding from the ERDF. The STEP partnership consists of 9 ambitious partners from 8 regions wishing to improve their local sustainable energy policies and to support the deployment of regional policies at local level. In order to achieve the EU 20-20-20 targets, national and regional policies should be deployed more efficiently at local authorities’ level, who are key to ensuring successful policy implementation. The EU strategy is based on the subsidiary principle, giving priority to local initiatives and promoting cooperation between the different levels of decision-making. The project follows this approach by fostering local level policies, supporting energy efficiency and promoting energy selfsufficiency derived from national/regional policies. Both experienced and learning regions with different expertise levels participate in the exchange of policies. The specific objectives of the project are:     To increase the amount of renewable energy in project partner regions;  To boost the implementation of policies that may contribute to achieve the EU objectives 20-20-20;  To support territorial cohesion among participant regions according to European policies on energy and climate change by promoting energy self-sufficiency and energy diversification. www.steproject.eu To exchange and transfer practical actions at political level To create an inter-regional global political guide on sustainable energy and energy management systems at local level  To support the execution of sustainable energy actions through identification of the most suitable funding possibilities  To make a good practice transfer on interregional development policy by means of the elaboration of specific implementation plans in each of the participant regions.  To develop and strengthen the capacities of local authorities in sustainable planning and implementation  To boost subsidiarity and cooperation among the different decision-making levels (local, regional, national). The main aims of the STEP project are:  To create a set of regional good practices that may help to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions; To improve national, regional and local policies on sustainable energy THE RESULTS Sharing regional experiences enables regions to claim the role in sustainable energy policies. STEP partners will elaborate thematic policy practice guides with recommendations in three topics: (1) Better implementation of sustainable energy policies at local level; (1) Development of sustainable energy management systems, and (1) Financing tools investments. for sustainable energy These guides will translate into 8 regional implementation plans, which will guarantee the durability of the project results. The plans will be prepared after the end of STEP Project and will ensure the regional and local transfer of identified policy tools.