Auction of environmental projects
On March 13
EuropeAid, the European Commission's office of Cooperation with
Third Countries, organized for the first time a conference-aution
for environmental projects. The aim of the initiative is to auction
the projects already selected by the European Commission but that
have been excluded from funding for lack of budget. The intent of
this conference is to find donors willing to fund innovative ideas
on the environment, thus offering a second chance to the most
deserving projects.
The auctioned projects are circa 80 and address the protection of
biodiversity, the conservation of forests and the promotion of
sustainable energy as well as climate change and desertification in
Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe. The financial value of the
projects is between 400,000 and 3,000,000 euros. Nearly 400
participants registered to the event, including representatives
from universities, research foundations, international
organizations, NGOs, agencies of the Member States, private
foundations and private organizations. Benita Ferrero Waldner,
European Commissioner for External Relations declared: "each of the
projects should be implemented (...) the initiative will also be an
opportunity to facilitate a connection between the various actors
involved in the development, sharing the results of the selection
process of the Commission". If the initiative is successful, the
practice could be then extended to projects atteining other
themes.