Danuta Hübner, European Commissioner for Regional Policy, announced on March 9th 2009 that 105 billion Euro will be invested in the "green economy" through the EU Cohesion Policy. The funding, which represents more than 30% of the regional policy budget for 2007-2013, offers a solid platform for job creation and a significant boost for regions and cities in their quest to maintain Europe's global leadership in the field of green technologies.

The 105 billion Euro dedicated to green projects and jobs, which was already announced in May 2008, as one of the measures to shift priorities to boost jobs and growth in the EU, is almost three times greater than the sum allocated in the 2000-2006 budgetary period. A large part of the envelope (54 billion Euro) is designed to help Member States to comply with EU environmental legislation. Improvement of water and waste management alone accounts for 28 billion Eurio of the total.

The EU has embraced ambitious objectives in the fight against climate change, setting a 20% reduction in EU greenhouse gas emissions with a 20% share of renewable energies in EU energy consumption by 2020. With 48 billion Euro targeted at measures aimed at achieving EU climate objectives and creating a low carbon economy, the Cohesion Policy is making a considerable contribution to these goals. This includes 23 billion Euro for railways, 6 billion Euro for clean urban transport, 4.8 billion Euro for renewable energies and 4.2 billion Euro for energy efficiency.

Following this approach, Romania and Bulgaria for instance are investing the highest proportion of Cohesion Policy funds on environment-related projects, at 45% and 42% of their allocation respectively. These investments include hundreds of environmental major projects, which also contribute to protecting and creating jobs in the EU.

The Cohesion Policy is also helping to create new market openings for local economies by enabling them to seize the opportunities created by the need to tackle climate change as new potential sources of growth. Nearly half of the Member States (Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and the UK) have integrated indicators for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions into their Cohesion Policy programmes. France, for example, has developed a unique carbon evaluation tool to monitor CO2 emissions produced by all projects funded with EU support.

The environmental challenge does not respect borders. Cohesion Policy, with its numerous cross-border, transnational and interregional programmes, can offer an important platform for new types of cooperation. For instance, the EU Baltic Sea Region Strategy is the first EU strategy designed at the level of a "macro-region", involving neighbouring countries such as Russia. One of its main objectives is to improve the environmental state of the Baltic Sea.

In Commissioner Hübner words “support for the green economy and the environment goes hand-in-hand with the Cohesion Policy's objective to deliver sustainable growth, jobs and competitiveness. In a difficult financial climate, this investment will be instrumental in creating long-term employment and reviving local economies, as well as underpinning the EU's commitment to the fight against climate change."

Eco-innovation, a new opportunity for EU region's development

Promoting eco-innovation and new “green-collar” jobs, especially in small and medium enterprises (SMEs), ranks high in the priorities for support for the regions. The Cohesion Policy is contributing 3 billion Euro to the promotion of environmentally-friendly products and production processes in SMEs. One of the clear aims of funding for research and innovation is to boost overall investment in green technologies.

The Lahti Cleantech cluster in Finland is a good example of this type of support. The Community's investment in (1.5 M€) in this project encouraged innovation and development of environmental technologies by bringing together small and large enterprises, educational organisations and regional authorities. The results speak for themselves: 170 new jobs have been created, 20 new clean-tech companies have set up in the Lahti region and the project has attracted more than €30 million in total investment.