Community & energy in Brussels – with LIFE LOOP at the helm
About
On 11 June 2025, our team organised an inspiring afternoon around community energy together with other LIFE sister projects. It brought together 80 pioneers and practitioners eager to collaborate and share tools and activities for community-led clean energy.
LIFE LOOP took a central role in the event, showcasing our community energy accreditation scheme, the tools gathered in our resource box, and real-world impact in pilots from Croatia, Romania and Italy. Alongside sister LIFE projects—Comanage, LIFE BECKON, LIFE TANDEMS, and LIFE LETsGO4Climate—we put our brains together to see how we can bring the best tools and services to Europe’s local authorities, citizen and SME initiatives. The topics covered were: energy-sharing, energy poverty, policy and financial tools, standards & engagement.
This Forum was the climax of a very community-energy focused day. We had started the morning with a policy session at EUSEW ““Is energy sharing possible? Empowering communities for inclusivity”. Four on-the-ground practitioners and two EU policy experts shared their local and European visions for democratizing energy systems.
Achille Hannoset from the European Commission, DG ENER, expressed admiration for the community energy achievements presented by Tanya Hristova, Mayor of Gabrovo in Bulgaria. Gabrovo has proven to be a particularly eager and committed pilot city in both, LIFE LOOP and Tandems.
The policy session was also the release event of the joint policy brief “Enabling frameworks for community energy” providing an in-depth analysis of the current legislative landscape country-by-country. The panel echoed some of the persistent barriers in the implementation of energy community provisions that the report mentions.
So what’s next? LIFE LOOP’s momentum continues through to autumn, with our groundbreaking municipal accreditation scheme and Espresso training rolling out to more local authorities across Europe. Use the fast track to get accredited by September!
👉 Head to the full article by our TANDEMS partners for event highlights and outcomes from the topical world café discussions.
