Deadline Date: September 22, 2026
The European Commission is inviting grant applications to strengthen multilevel climate and energy dialogue by improving coordination, governance, and the implementation of energy and climate policies across the European Union.
The focus areas of this programme include multilevel climate and energy governance, stakeholder engagement, coordination between administrative levels, improvement of National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs), enhancement of reporting and monitoring systems, and alignment of local and national climate strategies.
The initiative is designed to support the implementation of the Governance Regulation for the Energy Union and Climate Action by ensuring effective participation and coordination among public authorities, civil society organisations, businesses, investors, and other stakeholders. It emphasises the need for structured dialogue processes that enable meaningful contribution from all governance levels in the development and monitoring of climate and energy policies.
The programme addresses identified gaps in the implementation of existing provisions, where Member States have shown uneven progress in establishing effective multilevel dialogue mechanisms. It promotes the strengthening of these processes to ensure more consistent policy delivery and improved coordination across regions, cities, and national governments.
A key objective is to enhance the coherence of strategies and measures across different governance levels while improving reporting systems linked to local and national planning instruments. These include Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans, Heating and Cooling Plans, European Energy Award frameworks, National Energy and Climate Plans, National Building Renovation Plans, and Social Climate Plans.
The programme also focuses on developing governance and process models that support robust reporting and monitoring mechanisms. These models are expected to integrate vertical and horizontal coordination approaches, combining top-down and bottom-up methods to improve verification and implementation of climate and energy policies.
In addition, the initiative encourages linking with existing policy frameworks and dialogue platforms to ensure consistency and complementarity with related initiatives in energy efficiency, building renovation, and climate transition financing. It does not prioritise the development of new tools or digital platforms unless their added value and scalability are clearly demonstrated.
The funding available for this programme is €2,000,000, with an indicative project duration of 36 months.
Eligible applicants include legal entities established in EU Member States, overseas countries and territories, EEA countries, and countries associated with the LIFE Programme. The coordinating entity must be based in an eligible country.
For more information, visit European Commission.
