TCAS: Tacis Cities Award Scheme

EU funds environment in municipalities across borders

Brussels. February 6, 2006

The European Union will distribute a total of EUR 1.6 million to fund environmental sustainability improvements beyond its new Eastern Borders, through the Tacis Cities Award Scheme (TCAS)TCAS has been launched by EuropeAid for municipalities in the border regions of Belarus, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine and the whole territory of Georgia. Royal Haskoning and the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe will work to encourage participation in the TCAS grant programme, and to raise awareness of sustainable development and environmental protection at municipal level

TCAS aims to improve the environmental situation outside the border of the enlarged EU (which will include Romania and Bulgaria in 2007) . To achieve this, the scheme will support specific practical actions by the municipal authorities and will strengthen their co-operation with other governmental institutes and civil society.

According to the TCAS priorities, approved by EuropeAid, funding will be awarded to projects which are “practical and result in a measurable improvement in the quality of life for the inhabitants of the concerned municipality”. Projects under the programme should target a specific critical issue that has an adverse effect on the inhabitants of the municipality. The problems to be resolved with the help of TCAS will need to be part of the documented environmental priorities of municipal governments. TCAS will encourage co-operation with other municipalities and organisations within the awarded projects.

Actions proposed for funding under TCAS should be related to environmental management, nature protection or environmental sustainability. Solid waste management; water supply and water treatment, air pollution, energy efficiency in municipal buildings, access to information are some of the possible areas for TCAS proposals.

Proposals for funding from single municipalities or coalitions will need to be received by EuropeAid in Brussels by June 2006. The exact date will be announced later. A panel of EU experts will select the winning projects by September 2006. Awarded projects are expected to last between 9 and 12 months, and they will need to be completed by December 31, 2007. Applications will need to be in English language.

A minimum of EUR 120,000 and a maximum of EUR 160,000 will be available for a single project. The applicants will need to cover at least 20% of the project costs from their own resources, or from third parties’ resources other than the European Community budget or the European Development Fund.

TCAS aims primarily at resolving environmental problems in urbanized areas. That is why municipalities or coalitions eligible for funding in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine will need to have a population size larger than 20, 000. In Georgia and Moldova no minimum number of citizens will be required for TCAS applicant municipalities or coalitions. Georgia and Moldova are much smaller and a similar population size requirement would leave most of their municipalities out of the competition, explained Margriet Hartman. Hartman is the leader of a preparatory EuropeAid project designed to support the implementation of TCAS, carried out by Royal Haskoning-(Netherlands) and the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe

The TCAS support team will launch an information campaign in the target regions of the funding scheme. TCAS coordinators will offer local language information, advice and support to municipalities and coalitions who want to apply for TCAS funding. Project proposal and implementation trainings will be held for interested municipality applicants. All information about TCAS, application forms and guidelines will be available at a multilingual web site at http://tcas.rec.org.

The geographical coverage of the new funding scheme has been determined by the EU. In Belarus it will include the oblasts of Brest, Grodno, Minsk and Vitebsk. In Moldova the regions covered by TCAS will be: Briceni, Cahul, Cantemir, Edinet, Hincesti, Leova, Nisporeni, Ungheni, Falesti, Glodeni, and Riscani. The scheme will cover the regions of St. Petersburg, Leningrad, Murmansk, Pskov, Kaliningrad, Archangelsk oblasts and the republic of Karelia of the Russian Federation. In Ukraine TCAS will cover Volynska, Lvivska, Zakarpatska, Ivano-Frankivska, Chernivetska and Odesska oblasts. All regions of Georgia will be covered by the programme.

The New Enlarged European Union with the planned expansion of Romania and Bulgaria in 2007 will be sharing a border of over 5,000 kilometres with the Russian Federation, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine. The European Union wants to support the border regions in their sustainable development efforts. Much of the burden of environmental problems falls to the municipal level. But limited financial and human resources of the municipalities make it extremely difficult for them to cope with these problems, that is why TCAS aims to assist them, explained Hartman.

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