1.3 Send the same table to the European Commission Indeed, the European Commission has its own information about the socio-economic situation of each Member State. Why not help by informing them on the housing needs in your local context?
You should send it to the Head of Geographic Units covering your country. See the list below:
Geographical Unit covering
Head of Unit
BELGIUM, FRANCE, LUXEMBOURG
german.granda@ec.europa.eu
IRELAND, UNITED KINGDOM
agnes.lindemans@ec.europa.eu
GERMANY and NETHERLANDS
marc-eric.dufeil@ec.europa.eu
CZECH REPUBLIC
jack.engwegen@ec.europa.eu
SLOVAKIA
christopher.todd@ec.europa.eu
HUNGARY
marco.orani@ec.europa.eu
SPAIN
andrea.mairate@ec.europa.eu
PORTUGAL
judit.torokne-rozsa@ec.europa.eu
ITALY, MALTA
willebrordus.sluijters@ec.europa.eu
POLAND
patrick.amblard@ec.europa.eu
ESTONIA, FINLAND, LATVIA
marc.botman@ec.europa.eu
LITHUANIA, SWEDEN, DENMARK
dorota-kalina.zaliwska@ec.europa.eu
ROMANIA
angela.martinez-sarasola@ec.europa.eu
BULGARIA
renaldo.mandmets@ec.europa.eu
GREECE, CYPRUS
sabine.bourdy@ec.europa.eu
AUSTRIA, SLOVENIA
georgios.yannoussis@ec.europa.eu
STEP 2
Talk local! (Deadline: April 2013)
As you certainly know, Structural Funds & Cohesion Policy are about REGIONS. So you won’t escape from working at the regional level. Either with your regional offices or with your members directly in cities.
2.1. Organise a meeting with your regional offices or local members To inform them about the EU funding opportunities in the field of energy efficiency, investment in social infrastructures, urban regeneration, training‌ To help them prepare the same table you prepared above for the central Government While the central government will be negotiating with the European Commission about the national strategy, regions and now cities will start thinking about the regional strategy. And since it is where the money will ultimately flow to support programmes and projects, there should be housing programmes and projects ready to be supported!
Identify with them projects or schemes that could receive the support of Structural Funds (ESF and ERDF) in particular for innovative financing (for instance using ESF to create funds for social entreprises, using ERDF to create revolving funds for energy efficiency programmes at the local level). If needed, inform them about successful projects in other EU countries4. Convince them that it is worth the effort. Indeed, some might think by now that it is a lot of work for a tiny part of the resources needed to carry out a project. Well, it is true that the co-financing rate by the EU will in most cases not go over 50% of the costs if you are in a richer region, and could be even as low as 20%. But we have plenty of examples of projects by now and they all come to the same conclusion: EU support has brought something more in terms of visibility, achievement above the original targets, or quality of relationship between the actors.
For that, the European Commission will publish soon a study with many interesting case studies (for further information contact julien.dijol@housingeurope.eu) 4