Maltese MEP Alfred Sant and Croatian MEP Tonino Picula, have been informed by the European Commission that it will provide €10 million to enforce the project ‘Strengthening cooperation on climate action among EU islands.’

The European Commission had already approved €2 million for the same project for clean energy.

Dr Sant and Mr Picula, former Foreign Affairs Ministers of Croatia. have been working for the past months on the implementation of a project for clean energy for EU island states.

Mr Picula represents various Croatian islands, while Dr Sant has been actively asking the European Commission to provide funds for clean energy in EU islands, including Gozo and Malta.

Christopher Jones the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Energy, responsible for External policy and development of financial instruments, told Dr Sant and Mr Picula that the Commission had agreed with their proposals.

“Our principle aim here is Growth. We want to have livable islands,” Mr Jones told the Maltese and Croatian MEPs.

“The Commission will start with identifying 20 islands as case-studies,” Mr Jones said. “The Secretariat’s scope will be to work with the different individual islands while creating a network. It will also aim to be somewhere between knowledge sharing and assistance.”

Mr Picula remarked that he is in favour of accessible energy for small islands. “We want to secure life on islands. We therefore aim at tackling limitations, especially for small islands. We want to have accessible energy.”

The Commission’s feedback to their proposal, was described as “positive,” by MEP Alfred Sant. “The Commission must support our concerns to make up for the effects of insularity which citizens experience in EU islands.” he said.

Photo: MEP Alfred Sant, Mr Christopher Jones and Croatian MEP Tonino Picula at the European Parliament

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