The NET-COM project aims at empowering local authorities (at both political and administrative levels) to implement successfully their current (or future) Covenant engagements. Thus, NET-COM directly supports the EU’s Energy and Climate Package targets.

NET-COM started in June 2011 and will end in November 2013. The project is carried out by a consortium of 12 partners from 12 different European countries. Partnering organisation of the Intelligent Energy-Europe Programme are Energy Cities (coordinator); Climatkommunerna (SE); Union of the Baltic Cities; Climate Alliance; Climate Alliance Austria (AT); Climate Alliance Italy (IT); Klimaatverbond(NL); Energy Cities in Romania (RO); Association of Flemish Cities and Municipalities VVSG(BE); Polish Network Energie-Cités (PL); Citenergo (SK); EcoEnergy(BG).

In each country Covenant Networking Platforms will be created to work on:

• Better communication and exchanges among local authorities (Covenant Signatories or not) which would improve their own capacities and effectiveness to achieve the Covenant goals.
• Better communication, exchange and synergies between local authorities and key actors such as public institutions (ministries, national/regional agencies, regions, provinces, associations of local and regional authorities) and any other stakeholders (businesses, NGOs, associations, etc.) willing to support local authorities in their efforts to achieve the Covenant objectives.

Furthermore, the continuous capacity building of the European, national and regional networks of local authorities will be crucial for the coming years. NET-COM will set up a permanent cooperation among the networks in order to benchmark their experiences, practices, tools and working methods.

UBC in NET-COM
UBC Environmental Commission is responsible for developing a Covenant of Mayors Net-working Platform in the Baltic Sea Region. UBC will lead the Work Package on Benchmarking and innovation of networking and communication activities, which includes among other things training sessions, collecting and documenting the most successful networking practices.

The product of the project will be in form of a European Book of Recipes for Covenant supporters and territorial coordinators, developed to ensure that the participants communicate and disseminate efficiently and innovatively the Covenant of Mayors.

Contact
Esther Kreutz - Project coordinator
esther.kreutz@ubc.net
+358 44 9075980

Anna Stenberg - Project officer
anna.stenberg@turku.fi
+358 400 875 901