Date: 03 December 2024
Concluding the year of protection of environmental interests, Green Liberty held a webinar “Green principles and hidden issues in the use of EU public funding,” which will took place on November 28, 2023 online.
During the webinar, we presented what public funding of the European Union (EU) is available for Latvia’s development already now, and overviewed the green principles that are in place for the use of public funding, as well assessed how efficiently this funding is currently being absorbed, taking the transport sector as an example. In addition, we also learned how each of us can engage in these processes and in shaping Latvia’s climate policy to help finance sustainable projects and how to be active in our communities. During this event, we also looked back on the experience of Green Liberty this year – the year of advocacy of environmental interests.
What principles should finance be based on in order to make investment truly sustainable? What lessons can we draw from existing projects? Those were the questions investigated by this webinar.
The webinar was an hour and 30 minutes long and was based primarily on presentations by experts and a short discussion at the end of the event. The event was promoted through Green Liberty’s networks as well as invitations were sent to about 150 people directly, including NGOs and people from various sectors working with EU funds. The event had 22 participants in total, all coming from Latvia.
Energy transition and EU funds expert from NGO Green Liberty
highlighted the main aspects of accessibility of EU funds for the accomplishment of environmental goals and presented Green Liberty’s experience. Main issues and progress regarding EU Recovery and Resilience Fund (including the newest developments regarding RePower chapters), cohesion policy funds, Modernisation fund and Social climate fund was presented. Both positive achievements (investments) were presented as well as negative or problematic investments were discussed. The work and potential for participation in EU funds monitoring committee was promoted. View presentation
Climate change and energy expert from Green Liberty presented the work by the project “Towards Climate neutral EU: effective use of EU funds” (EUKI). The developed green principles in implementation of EU funds were presented, as well as an extensive best practice investment database developed by the project with some concrete examples that illustrate the above-mentioned principles. Clear recommendations were given for future decision makers as well as people involved in project monitoring, such as – not investing into projects without clear benefit for the society, taking care to establish information and exchange with local communities, avoidance of “green washing” among others. View presentation.
Manager of the company “ELEPORT Latvija”, expert at NGO Green Liberty presented how EU funds have been used in sustainable transition of transport sector. He presented his analysis of 28 projects financed by various EU funds for the total of 413,7 million EUR funding with EU funding of 271 million EUR. The reviewed projects included investments in science, technology, infrastructure and various vehicles. In summary, many good projects have been executed and some critical infrastructure has been introduced. Unfortunately, in multiple cases the benefit to wide society and needs beyond the needs of the project have not been sufficiently addressed. “Green washing’ issues have also been recognized, with e.g. investments into LGN powered buses for example. View presentation.
Biodiversity expert from Green Liberty summarised the results of various discussions in the year for protection of environmental interests which took place, mostly on various aspects regarding civil society involvement and public participation. Some of the main civil participation events were reflected on, including various demonstrations throughout 2023. A SWOT analysis was presented for public participation for environmental protection. In overall the presenter stressed that in Green Liberty’s view public participation activity has grown in recent years and are no longer contained within environmental NGOs, politicians are becoming more careful and aware about environmental concerns, the activity of local communities is increasing. However, there are still significant issues with public participation in Latvia, with the most urgent topics being – lack of timely consultations with society, “tick the box” exercise approach from public institutions and also – non-violent communication issues in public discussions (with participants often being too aggressive in communication). View presentation.
This event was organised by NGO Green Liberty supported by the Citizens’ Observatory for Green Deal Financing project, financed by European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA), as well as the project Towards climate neutral EU: effective use of EU funds, which is financed by the European Climate Initiative (EUKI).
Views and opinions expressed are those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union, the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) or the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK). Neither the European Union, nor EACEA and BMWK can be held responsible for them.
