Jevšek: Slovenia is also eligible for substantial funding for a healthy and clean environment.
Opening address by Minister Dr Alexander Jevšek at the international conference on green space management in the urban environment | Author Ministry of Cohesion and Regional Development
“A lot of funding is available, but money is not everything; people should work together and discuss how we can all move together towards a healthier environment. We should cooperate in developing strategies,” the Minister stressed.
The Minister went on to talk about the various financial mechanisms with a green component, highlighting the Integrated Territorial Investment (ITI) mechanism, which supports the implementation of sustainable urban strategies by urban municipalities in Slovenia, the Agreement for the development of regions, the Interreg mechanism, and the Norwegian and Swiss contributions.
The Agreement for the development of regions makes approximately 460 million euros available for the programming period 2021-2027. The call for the preparation of the agreements is expected to be launched in March, and the first agreements are planned to be adopted in autumn.
The green concept will be incorporated in all measures supported under the agreements, the Just Transition Fund (JTF) and the EU-funded projects, as green transformation is also implemented through the ‘Do No Significant Harm’ (DNSH) principle, which is embedded in the implementation of the Slovenia’s Cohesion Policy Programme 2021-2027 and thus also in the implementation of projects. The DNSH principle ensures that the supported activities do not cause significant harm to the six environmental objectives defined in the EU Regulation.
The JTF mechanism, which is a novelty in the 2021-2027 programming period, is of great importance for the Savinjsko-Šaleška region under the European Cohesion Policy. In Slovenia, two coal regions, Zasavje and the Savinjsko-Šaleška region, are eligible for the funding available under this fund. The first calls for proposals have already been published, and the first award decision has already been issued for the strategic project Centre for Demonstration and Training in Zero-Carbon Technologies. As part of this EU-funded project, the National Institute of Chemistry will establish a development centre in the municipality Zagorje ob Savi, which will feature state-of-the-art research infrastructure for the development of zero-carbon technologies.