What’s EUp? Urban initiatives and LIFE at stake in the proposed EU Facility
What the proposed EU Facility means for the future of urban initiatives and the LIFE Programme
About
Discussions on the next EU long-term budget are ongoing, and Energy Cities continues to unpack what the proposal means for cities and towns. Today’s menu: the future of urban initiatives and the LIFE programme, and a new facility designed to cope with the uncertainty of our time.
What is the EU Facility in the next budget proposal?
Alongside the National and Regional Partnership Plans (NRPPs), the European Commission proposes the creation of an “EU Facility” with a €63.2 billion envelope. It is a flexible tool, conceived as a reserve to respond to a fast-changing and crisis likely context. The Facility has multiple objectives, including:
- complementing the actions of the NRPPs by supporting transnational projects with high EU added value that require coordination at EU level;
- serving as a flexible instrument to respond to crises, such as natural disasters, or to support repair and recovery after a crisis;
- providing technical support to Member States to implement their NRPPs;
- acting as a potential reserve to adapt NRPP priorities when needed, or to potential EU enlargement
The EU Facility would be managed under direct, shared or indirect management by the European Commission, depending on the activities carried out. It would provide budgetary guarantees as well as financial instruments, including grants. Third countries—such as EFTA members of the European Economic Area, European microstates, acceding countries, candidate countries and potential candidate countries—would also be able to access the Facility.
What’s in it for cities and towns?
The annex to the proposal specifies that, among other actions, the Facility should:
- Support urban authorities in developing innovative projects, strengthening city capacities, and creating a knowledge environment to share know-how on sustainable urban development;
- Support LIFE actions related to environmental, nature and climate projects. As a result, the current LIFE programme would partially survive within the European Competitiveness Fund for its energy component, and within this EU Facility for its environmental component—among many other actions, but without dedicated earmarking or a standalone programme;
- Promote social innovation and experimentation, and support stakeholders, including at local and national levels;
- Support microfinance, social enterprise finance and the social economy, as well as measures to promote gender equality, skills, education, training and related services, social infrastructure (including health and education), and social and affordable housing.
Do we like it? Energy Cities’ opinion
In December, the European Commission published its new EU agenda for cities, which recognises the importance of cities for Europe’s prosperity and competitiveness, as well as the challenges they face.
Energy Cities is overall positive about this agenda, but calls for stronger recognition of local authorities of all sizes in the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), including in the EU Facility.
Indeed, within the Facility, actions targeting local authorities are merged with a wide range of broad and diverse priorities, which does not reflect their key role as key delivery actors for European objectives, including the Green Deal, digitalisation and social cohesion.
Energy Cities is also concerned about the dilution of LIFE environmental activities within the EU Facility. LIFE has been one of the few programmes that truly empowers local governments, offering targeted, bottom-up support and cross-border cooperation opportunities that directly respond to territorial needs. Absorbing the programme in a multi-priority pot without safeguards risks weakening local authorities’ ability to implement projects needed to meet legal obligations and citizens’ expectations on clean air, nature restoration, resilient infrastructure and sustainable mobility.
How to fix it? Our demands
We therefore believe that the co-legislators should amend the EU Facility proposal to:
- Include a dedicated €4 billion budget line for cities. This funding should help build local capacity and provide technical assistance, foster new knowledge, and support innovative actions, governance models and city-level pilot projects, as proposed in the EU Agenda for Cities. It would also ensure the continuity of successful initiatives such as the European Urban Initiative.
- Ring-fence a dedicated LIFE envelope, ensuring that actors delivering on the ground—such as local authorities—can continue to innovate, collaborate across borders and implement solutions designed with local communities.
What’s next? A call for action
The negotiations are starting in the European Parliament during this first quarter of 2026 while the council is continuing hoping to reach a conclusion on this matter in June. Thefore, this first semester of 2026 will be key to be mobilised.
Read the Alliance of Local Authorities’ recommendations for more details and our mobilisation kit to get involved!
Explore our articles on the MFF overall architecture, national plans, and our Q&A “Everything a city wants to know about the MFF” on the dedicated campaign page!
