How can the Just Transition Fund support the EU transition to climate neutral economy?
That was the main question of discussion during the workshop on Just Transition Fund (JTF) organised by Parliamentary Committee for Regional Development (REI) on 19 February 2020.
During the workshop, independent experts provided information about the social and economic challenges linked to the EU energy transition, the needs of the EU coal and energy intensive regions, potential for their development and solutions proposed by the European Commission in the recent legislative proposal establishing the Just Transition Fund COM(2020) 22.
The Just Transition Fund aims to be a key tool in supporting the territories most affected by the transition towards climate neutrality and to avoid regional disparities growing. It is therefore proposed to be established within the framework of Cohesion Policy, which is the main EU policy instrument to reduce regional disparities and to address structural change in Europe’s regions.
During the workshop, dr Vangelis Tzimas from Joint Research Centre of the European Commission presented a study on “EU coal regions: opportunities and challenges ahead”. He has explained the current situation of EU coal and energy intensive regions and their potential for economic transformation.
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Dr Enrico Botta from Environment Directorate of OECD has presented its study “A review of Transition Management strategies: Lessons for advancing the green low-carbon transition”. He has provided examples of different countries that has already faced similar transitions and underlined specific challenges linked to the economic transition of coal and energy intensive regions.
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Dr. Grégory Claeys from Bruegel has provided an assessment of the proposal of the regulation on Just Transition Fund. In particular, he has analysed the tools and size of budget proposed by the European Commission.
Presentation:
After the three presentations, Members of the REGI committee as well as members of other committees involved in the work on the regulation has discussed in detail the proposal of the European Commission.
At the end of the meeting, the Chair of the REGI committee, Younous Omarjee, thanked the Policy Department B, the experts and representatives of the European Commission and of the Social and Economic Committee for their involvement in the event.
If you want to learn more about the conclusions and recommendations of the study, have a look at the block below.
Further reading: Research for REGI Committee – Assessment of the Just Transition Fund proposal
Watch video of the event with multilingual interpretation:
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