The European Commission has announced an increase in the budget for Europe’s islands amounting to an impressive 10 million euros.

In Brussels, MEP Tonino Picula met with Cristopher Jones (Deputy General Director of the Commission’s Energy Directorate) who confirmed this information and thanked him for the initiative so far.

The reason for this meeting was the continuation of the implementation of the Preparatory Action proposed by Tonino Picula last year, and for which 2 million has already been approved from the EU budget.

Namely, Picula, together with his colleagues Alfred Sant (MEP from Malta) and Michela Giuffrida (MEP from Italy) from the Inter-Group of the European Parliament for the Sea, Rivers, Islands and Coastal areas, of which Picula is responsible for European Islands, put in place an amendment, following a positive evaluation from the European commission and the European Parliament, ha managed to obtain the aforementioned 2 million euros for the islands.

“The goal of this action is to make the islanders [themselves] the leaders in the use of clean energy, to become the models for solutions at a European level. To help them make the most of the electricity they use by using local clean energy sources and thus become more autonomous in regard to their energy supply”, says Picula.

Tenders will be announced next month (November 2017) and funds will be allocated within the next two years. The deadline for applications is January 2018.