European City Facility

Objective

Our vision of the European City Facility (EUCF) is one where European cities have their say on how the EUCF financial support will be used to meet their needs and help them overcome barriers they face in financing and implementing their ambitious energy and climate strategies.

The ultimate objective of the EUCF is to build a substantial pipeline of sustainable energy investment projects across cities in Europe. This will be achieved by providing targeted financial, technical, legal and capacity building support to overcome critical barriers, develop credible investment packages and mobilise finance. Delivering this will require organisational, technical and financial innovation, in particular to bridge the capacity and capability gap for small and medium-sized municipalities.

The specific objectives are to:
- Provide hands-on locally rooted technical and financial expertise, inspired by ‘best in class’ European practice, to cities to deliver at least 225 credible and scalable investment concepts (hereafter referred to as IC) which should trigger more than EUR 320 M of public and private investment.
- Build the capacity of at least 450 public authority staff to develop substantial project pipelines and provide them with tools, networking and knowledge transfer opportunities which will facilitate and accelerate the IC implementation, including via innovative financing mechanisms and project aggregation.
- Facilitate access especially for small and medium-sized municipalities to private finance, EU funding streams and similar facilities (e.g. ESIF, H2020-PDA, Elena-EIB) and advisory services such as the EIB Advisory Hub to realise and amplify the expected investments.
- Use the successful IC and knowledge of EUCF beneficiaries to reach out to more than 8,000 cities and communities, encourage replication and catalyse further action across European cities.