On August 30th 2013, the European Union announced a new programme to help cities in the EU’s Eastern and Southern Neighbourhood for Sustainable Urban Demonstration Projects (SUDeP). It should start at the beginning of 2014.

The programme is part of the Covenant of Mayors (CoM), European movement from local and regional voluntary initiative to reduce by 20% greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 and improve the energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy. Moreover, this programme covers the priority of the Energy Security Platform established by the Eastern Partnership (EaP), which deals with the co-operation between the EU and six European Neighbourhood countries bordering the East part of the EU, part of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) since May 2009. Thanks to this Policy, the EU works with regions where population keeps growing, hence the need to develop a cleaner urban environment with a better management of energy sources to ensure a better quality of life.

It has two components:
– an Eastern component based on the implementation of Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SEAPs), with the help of the Covenant of Mayors
– a Southern component supporting local sustainable development plans

The programme will include activities such as
*co-financing for sustainable urban development demonstration projects
*setting up a Supporting Mechanism to help the municipalities to design and implement demonstration projects
*the visibility and dissemination of results
*the implementation of a Municipal Finance Facility (only in the East) to improve access to loans for sustainable investments
*providing scientific and technical support from the Joint Research Centre for the monitoring of the implementation and results of the Sustainable Energy Action Plans under the Covenant of Mayors

The European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI) ensure the funding from the SUDeP programme. A total of 35,5 million euro is available.