On October 15, 2019, Tbilisi (Georgia) hosted the Joint Steering Committee (SC) meeting of the two projects under the Covenant of Mayors initiative – Covenants of Mayors East (CoM East) and Covenants of Mayors – Demonstration Projects (CoM-DeP).

The Joint Steering Committee gathered representatives of the teams from both CoM projects, EU Delegation to Georgia, Global Covenant of Mayors Initiative, Mayors for Economic Growth (M4EG), as well as CoM National Coordinators and Supporters from 6 Eastern Partnership countries.

The event was opened and chaired by Mr Michael Rupp, Head of Sector, Connectivity Neighbourhood East, DG NEAR, European Commission, who welcomed the participants and chaired the meeting. Mr Rupp highlighted the main focus of the meeting: coming closer to 2020, it is time to think about a future concept of the Covenant of Mayors in the Eastern Partnership countries, in particular how to strengthen and promote the Covenant in the region.

Mr Christophe Frering, CoM East Team Leader, presented the main results and achievements as well as future needs of the CoM Signatories in the region. The CoM-DeP Team Leader Mr Jan Waanders shared the results and challenges of the Demonstration Projects. The meeting continued with the discussion of the critical success factors of energy efficiency and climate projects and the future prospects of the Covenant of Mayors in the Eastern Partnership countries, with the participation of National Coordinators and Supporters together with the EU representatives.

On October 16, 2019, participants of the Joint SC Meeting visited Business Accelerator "Spark, which was established by CoM Signatory Tbilisi City Hall in partnership with the Georgian Employers' Association within the framework of the EU Initiative “Mayors for Economic Growth” (M4EG). The Business Accelerator "Spark" is one of the 16 pioneer projects implemented by M4EG Signatories in Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

In total, 17 Demonstration Projects have been/are being implemented in Ukraine within the two phases of the CoM-DeP Programme (2015 – 2021)

It is hard to believe that more than a decade had already passed since the first ten Ukrainian municipalities (and the sole in the whole post-Soviet area) joined the Covenant of Mayors initiative in February 2009. They took part in a grand signing ceremony in Brussels together with more than 300 European Covenant “pioneers”. At that time, no one had a clear vision of what and how should be done to meet the undertaken CO₂ reduction commitments by 2020. However, there was a strong belief that the initiative should profoundly change the energy profile of Europe and the attitude of its citizens towards energy and climate. Moreover, as a specific and very detailed strategic approach to and integral part of the municipal sustainable development policy, the Covenant was aimed at improving the quality of life of the municipal communities, thus completely meeting the tasks of local authorities.

Having joined the Covenant, every municipality simultaneously becomes a member of a big supportive CoM “family”, which includes Covenant National and Territorial Coordinators, Covenant Supporters and relevant financial mechanisms focused on the implementation of SE(C)APs that should be developed by Signatories.

In 2011, the first big EU-funded project “Covenant of Mayors East” (CoM-East) was launched in 11 post-Soviet countries (except Russia and the Baltic states). A huge scope of works was done in Ukraine during the period of its implementation:  dozens of trainings, seminars, round tables, conferences and other events were held under its umbrella due to the EU support; first SEAPs were developed and approved by JRC opening new prospects for the CoM Signatories; a series of study visits to the EU as well as the most successful Ukrainian municipalities took place; the first Sustainable Energy Days/Weeks were organised by the Signatories. Since that time, the country witnessed a constant and dynamic growth in the number of Signatories and shared their experience amongst other EaP countries.

The year 2015 became a crucial turning point for the Covenant of Mayors, when the European Commission recognized it as the best EU initiative of the decade, and the initiative has been transformed into the global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy.  

The same year, two new big EU-supported projects were launched to support CoM Signatories in the EaP countries – the next phase of the CoM East project and the Programme “Covenant of Mayors – Demonstration Projects” (CoM-DeP). The design of the latter contained a co-financing grant component (up to 80% of the total budget) for the selected CoM Signatories that availed implementation of energy efficiency measures in these communities under the supervision of European experts. Within the two phases of the CoM-DeP, 17 projects of the Ukrainian CoM Signatories (out of 31 overall grantees in EaP countries) were supported by the EU with the granted amounts from ca. 800.000€ till 1.200.000 € each.

In the framework of the second phase of the CoM East project, intensive trainings, awareness raising campaigns and permanent consulting helpdesk for the new Ukrainian Signatories were organised to provide support to the Local Authorities in terms of capacity building, development of SECAPs and searching for funding mechanisms. Furthermore, the idea of experience exchange between CoM Signatories both inside and outside Ukraine led to the City2City Programme launched in 2018. As of today, eight City2City study visits were organised by the CoM East project, four of them in Ukraine (1 to Zhovkva, 1 to Zhytomyr and 2 to Slavutych).

The number of Ukrainian CoM National and Territorial Coordinators grew to 2 and 12 respectively; also, three CoM Supporters joined the Ukrainian Covenant community. It inspired the CoM East team in Ukraine to initiate a new cooperation and networking format for the Signatories – Municipal Development Coordination Platform (MDCP) that was established in December, 2018.

The ten-year experience of Ukraine in the Covenant of Mayors is significant indeed. The figures speak for themselves: number of Ukrainian Signatories grew from 10 in 2009 to 275 in 2019 (almost two times more than overall in the rest of EaP countries), 161 of them already undertook their commitments until 2030 with climate adaptation segment in their SECAPs. The synergy and achievements of the EU-funded projects and other donor’s programmes under the CoM initiative in Ukraine allow for sharing their useful experience among other municipalities in Eastern Partnership countries and contributing to their sustainable energy development. 

Andriy Kyrchiv

CoM East Communication Expert in Ukraine

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