Causas Support to European islands with the view to achieving the 2020 sustainability EU objectives

Following the signing of the Pact of Islands by 50 European islands authorities, committing to go beyond the objectives for CO2 emissions reduction set by the EU for 2020, MEPs Maria da Graca Carvalho, Spyros Danellis, and Georgios Stavrakakis, took the initiative to organize a discussion meeting with the aim to propose the continuation of European Parliament's support to European islands and to the Pact of Islands process in concrete.

During her intervention, Ms. Carvalho spoke about the future of the Pact of Islands process, namely, about the vulnerability of islands to energy and climate change, about the development of the Pact of Islands in the future and about the need to find concrete solutions to infrastructure and funding problems. 

The Pact of Islands process was created in the framework of the ISLE-PACT project with the support of DG ENERGY. The project started in February 2010 and by its end in July 2012 it is expected to deliver Island Sustainable Energy Action Plans, as well as a pipe-line of bankable projects which will contribute to the reduction of CO2 emissions by 20% by 2020.

According to the Pact of Islands Resolution issued by the 2011 Annual Conference of the CPMR Islands Commission, there is need to continue the Pact of Islands initiative and see it through to its implementation and monitoring phases from 2012 to 2020. The European Parliament was therefore invited to continue providing its support to European island communities by

• Initiating a new Declaration in favour of the continuation of the Pact of Islands process with the view to achieving the 2020 sustainability objectives of the EU and
• Providing the financial means in order to enable the continuation of the Pact of Islands process beyond July 2012.

Background: In March 2007, the European Parliament passed a Declaration ("The Musotto Declaration") calling on the European Commission to take a number of measures with the view to provide additional support to European island communities in order to overcome their natural and economic constraints with the view to take action and contribution to the EU Climate-Energy Policy. This initiative resulted to the approval of a budget line of 3 million € to finance island-specific actions.

A call for proposals followed inviting interested island partnerships to submit proposals for the development of a binding Pact of Islands, committing island authorities to plan, develop and implement a series of Island Sustainable Energy Action Plans and a pipeline of bankable projects with the view to achieve a minimum of 20% CO2 emissions reduction by the year 2020. A consortium of 12 European islands was formed in March 2009 and the ISLE-PACT proposal was submitted and selected by DG Energy as the winning proposal.