The Regional Stakeholders Group Meeting was held in Turceni City, Gorj County from Romania on May 2021. It was hosted by partner no. 4– South-West Oltenia Regional Development Agency. The event was attended by 21 participants, representatives of the senate, chamber of deputies, county and local authorities, mayors of localities that use intensive coal and representatives of the Oltenia Energy Complex.
The event was opened with a short welcome from the Mayor of Turceni, Mrs Cristina Cilibiu. The meeting was divided into two parts. In the first part, the focus was on informing stakeholders on project progress, upcoming activities and their role in the 6th semester, presentation made by Mrs Laura Buzatu, Project Expert. Stakeholders were acquainted with the projects progress and the current activities of the 6th semester in which the project entered the phase of preparation of an action plan for co-creation of a policy in the field of decarbonisation, which concludes the first phase of the project. In the second part of the meeting, Mrs Mihaela Lupancescu presented financing opportunities in the energy sector and related sectors, giving participants the chance to find out about the current investment opportunities that are available in the energy sector. Mr Gabriel Burada, the guest from the Regional Policy and Communication Directorate, South-West Oltenia Regional Development Agency, presented the Regional Operational Program 2021-2027. Also, the Just Transition Operational Program was debated, being a topic of interest among the organizers and participants. Also, during the meeting, there were debates on the development needs of stakeholders in the energy sector, discussions on the development of the regional action plan to improve and/or reorient policy instruments to address the decarbonisation policy implemented within the DeCarb project. At the end of the meeting, the participants had the opportunity to discuss their funding needs with members of the DeCarb project implementation team, from the South-West Oltenia Development Agency. The event ended with a session of free discussions focused, in particular, on how participants can be supported by the actions carried out in the project.
There is real concern among local authorities for the clean energy transition and local authorities are willing to work together to find the best financing and investment solutions and they are interested in learning based on the best practices and experience of advanced partners in decarbonisation. The participants had the opportunity to discuss their funding needs with members of the DeCarb project implementation team, from the South-West Oltenia Development Agency. In this sense, there was a major interest in the funding available for the new programming period, respectively regarding the opportunities of the ROP 2021-2027, the Just Transition Operational Program, with an impact on decarbonization.
