The Secretariat’s Technical Assistance to Regions in Transition (START) programme aims to deliver enhanced transition-related expertise, capabilities and capacities in the coal regions that receive its support. It applies a collaborative approach, engaging recipients as active participants that contribute with their own resources alongside those provided by the secretariat in order to jointly pursue supported activities.
START addresses gaps in existing technical assistance available to EU coal regions. It is designed to provide targeted, needs-oriented expertise and capacity building to help regions take practical steps forward in economic diversification and decarbonisation. It will notably focus on
- developing transition strategies and governance arrangements
- identifying relevant priority projects
- designing and developing identified priority projects, including appropriate financing strategies
Assistance may focus on specific topics of particular relevance to the clean and fair energy transition, such as energy system transformation and alternative technologies, environmental rehabilitation, employment and labour force measures, social cohesion and welfare, heritage and culture or transport.
START recipients
Following a call for applications, 7 regions were selected to receive support through the START programme
- Asturias, Spain
- Jiu Valley, Romania
- Karlovy Vary, Czechia
- Małopolska, Poland
- Megalopolis (Peloponnese), Greece
- Midlands, Ireland
- Silesia, Poland
These 7 recipients of START support represent a diverse cross-section of regions and communities. They differ across features including resource type (hard coal, lignite, peat), socio-economic structure, industrial characteristics (mono-industrial and diversified) and geographic attributes (rural, urban, endowment of natural resources and assets). These regions are also at different stages of their transition processes. Such regional variety will contribute to the exchange of lessons about the transition.
During the first half of 2020, the Secretariat undertook initial assessment work of the 7 recipients to further refine the scope and scale of START support, which was articulated in a specific work plan for each region. Technical assistance was delivered through to October 2021.
To ensure coordinated and integrated support to the selected START regions, the Secretariat worked closely with relevant European Commission partners, including the Directorates-General for Energy, Regional and Urban Policy and Structural Reform Support, as well as other providers of support, such as the World Bank.
Progress in the implementation of START and lessons learnt will be shared with stakeholders via initiative working group meetings, the annual political dialogue and the newsletter and webpages.
Resources from the START process
These include regional profiles, jointly developed with each START region, which outline the context of the local coal sector, as well as transition plans, challenges and opportunities. You can also find ad hoc documents developed by START, either as background information or as inputs to START-supported activities.
- Regional profile: analysis of the relevant socio-economic and industrial context.
- Energy Strategy to 2030 with a Decarbonisation Path to 2050 in Asturias: Logic, Structure and Prioritisation Briefing Paper
- START Project fiche template
- Estrategia de transición energética justa de Asturias (Just energy transition strategy for Asturias)
- Regional profile: analysis of the relevant socio-economic and industrial context.
- From Strategy to Action: Delivering a Just Transition in the Jiu Valley, today and tomorrow (EN / RO)
- Regional profile: analysis of the relevant socio-economic and industrial context.
- Good practice examples of regional and sub-regional strategies in coal regions in transition: a working paper to stimulate innovative thinking and comparison of potential approaches amongst policy makers and practitioners informed by strategic good practices across a diverse set of regions undergoing change
- Employment creation opportunities and future skills requirements in the Karlovy Vary region - Part I: short-term opportunities
- Employment creation opportunities and future skills requirements in the Karlovy Vary region - Part II: longer-term opportunities
- Renewable heating solutions and energy efficiency in the building sector in karlovy vary (Presentation)
- Approaches to local development and job creation at the sub-regional level (Presentation / Background document)
- Regional profile: analysis of the relevant socio-economic and industrial context.
- Workshop on transition lessons and capacity development for local government - Presentation (EN / PL)
- Local Government, Clean Energy Production and Energy Clusters: a report on the options for developing energy clusters to promote decarbonisation of the energy system in western Malopolska (EN / PL)
- International experience of implementing revitalisation projects on former mining and industrial sites: Lessons for the project “Revitalization of the closed Coal Mine Brzeszcze Wschód [East] with its surroundings” (EN / PL)
- Co-ordination and partnership to promote revitalisation of multiple former coal mining sites - Insights from Limburg, Belgium (EN / PL)
- Transformation is female - START workshop on the role women should play in just transition (EN / PL)
- Regional profile: analysis of the relevant socio-economic and industrial context.
- Building on local assets to create a new economy: A report on the municipality of Megalopolis and eligible area
- Regional profile: analysis of the relevant socio-economic and industrial context.
- Midlands engagement process document: produced to support the submission/registration of transition projects, this document provides guidance on the process of registration and eligibility criteria for projects and programmes. Also, in the context of energy transition and development in the Midlands Region, it contains information on opportunities and emerging economic activities in rural communities, together with examples of innovative and community-led rural development projects.
- Briefing paper: Future employment and skills in the Irish Midlands
- Midlands pathway to transition: a framework for planning and co-ordinating change in the short and longer-term.
- Regional profile: analysis of the relevant socio-economic and industrial context.
- Transformation Options Framework: Guidance for identification and assessment of options for the transformation of former mining and industrial sites (EN / PL)