We are thrilled after an eventful and successful week for LIFE NCPs last week, with consecutive trainings from CINEA and Net4LIFE.
At the 2025 LIFE NCP CINEA Training 2nd April, a session was dedicated to sharing experiences on how LIFE NCPs promote the LIFE Programme and the impact of LIFE Projects in their countries. In collaboration with the organizers, it was decided that Net4LIFE would take these results and continue the conversation on the Communication Forum on the Net4LIFE website. You can find a summary of the points that were delivered to Net4LIFE in the forum. Please feel free to share more best practices by replying to the thread!
Net4LIFE Training 2025
One of Net4LIFE’s goals is to map and identify areas that LIFE NCPs would like to strengthen further, in order to be able to provide relevant training opportunities in those areas. Thanks to the efforts of consortium members from Croatia and Romania, as well as input from LIFE NCPs, the project was able to identify a need for further training on EU Policies that are relevant to the LIFE Programme, and this was the inspiration for Net4LIFE’s 2025 training titled: EU environmental and climate policies as they relate to the LIFE Programme.
The agenda was structured according to LIFE sub-programmes and the day started off with a presentation from Frank Vassen from DG ENV on EU policies relevant to the Nature and Biodiversity sub-programme, where Natura 2000, EU Birds and Habitats Directives, EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and EU Nature Restoration regulation were covered. Following the presentation, participants engaged in a roundtable discussion where they were encouraged to discuss the following subjects: Successful Nature and Biodiversity projects in their countries. What made them successful? How were you able to assist them? What kind of projects were they? How were they co-financed?; How do you as NCPs engage public authorities in LIFE Projects? and; How do you navigate conflicts between farmers/fisheries and nature?
Circular Economy and Quality of Life was the next sub-programme on the agenda and was presented by Wilhelmus De Wilt from DG ENV. Wilhelmus gave a thorough overview of policy context and latest developments when it comes to CEQL, followed up with case studies of three successful LIFE CEQL projects; LIFE SIP Malopolska, LIFE SAP EMERALD and LIFE SAP INSPIREE.
After lunch the sub-programme of Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation was covered by Isobel Findlay and Gianmarco Italia from DG CLIMA, and they gave an excellent overview on Fit for 55, Climate Policy Priorities for 2024-2029 and Funding for CLIMA priorities under LIFE. The presentation was followed up by roundtable discussions where the following questions were discussed: Do you have successful examples of synergies between CLIMA projects and other sub-programmes? What are potential barriers? Where do the possibilities lie?
Last but not least, Clean Energy Transition was covered by Pierluca Merola from DG ENER, who gave a thorough overview on the current framework of Fit-for-55 and REPowerEU, Energy Efficiency Directive, Clean Industrial Deal and Affordable Energy Action Plan. The presentation was coupled with a couple of case studies of successful LIFE CET projects; LifeGigaRegioFactory and GiDOMUS.
The Net4LIFE consortium would like to thank all participants for their participation and invaluable inputs and discussions and we look forward to future events.
