The meeting was prompted by the recent launch of the European Energy Islands Forum on Crete and the further implementation of the Islands Action Plan, which Picula had proposed together with his colleagues Alfred Sant of Malta and Michela Giuffrida of Italy and for which 2 million euros has been earmarked in the EU budget after a positive evaluation by the Commission and a vote in the European Parliament.
The aim of this initiative is to make the EU islands leaders in using clean energy so that they would become models for solutions at the European level, and to help them as much as possible to generate electricity by using local sources of clean energy and thus become more autonomous in their energy supply, Picula said.
Jones said that the Commission wanted to continue this praiseworthy initiative and was working on a possible budget increase with an additional 10 million euros from the Horizon 2020 programme. We certainly want to include the Croatian islands in this process as well, he said.
The funds from the action plan will be allocated in the next two years and should help less developed islands, such as Croatian ones, to improve their connectivity and develop strategic plans to achieve energy independence.
Tenders will be issued in November 2017, contracts should be signed next April and payments should be completed by 2020.