history of ceesen
CEESEN was first created in 2017 through the PANEL 2050 project, which received funding from the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme. In 2019, CEESEN became a legal NGO under the CEESEU project, which also received funding from the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme. Since then, CEESEN has participated in three projects funded under the LIFE+ programme (CEESEU-DIGIT, CEESEN-BENDER, and NEXUS), and is about to start the Interreg-funded project ENTRA.
More information about all of these efforts can be found on the projects page of this site.
CEESEN Board Members
CEESEN partners are building the CEESEN network to enable increased communication and collaboration among sustainable energy actors across the CEE region.
Name of the EU project: CEESEU
Name of the founded organisation and the main actor of the website: CEESEN (Central and Eastern European Sustainable Energy Network)
About the CEESEU project
The main goal of the CEESEU project is to build the capacity of public administrators in Central and Eastern Europe to develop Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans (SECAPs) that promote increased energy efficiency, sustainable energy, reduced carbon emissions and improved climate change adaptability, helping the region to contribute towards meeting the EU’s climate goals.
CEE municipalities have lagged behind their Western European counterparts in developing SECAPs due to a number of reasons such as a lack of awareness and interest in the planning process, lack of expertise, capacity and access to resources as well as the need for outreach strategies or procedural changes by EU level actors, such as the Covenant of Mayors (CoM), that will better address the unique circumstances of the CEE. To address these concerns, the CEESEU project will:
Create training materials and train local public administrators in the CEE on developing and implementing SECAPs, taking into account the specific contexts of CEE communities;
Guide CEE municipalities in engaging with stakeholders and carrying out multi-level governance to develop SECAPs;
Guide CEE municipalities in financing and implementing SECAP actions;
Improve engagement between public administrators in the CEE and with the EU;
Offer guidance to the CoM and other EU actors on how to better reach and serve the needs of CEE municipalities in the development and implementation of SECAPs.
As a result of the CEESEU project, several important longer-term impacts will be achieved:
650 GWh of energy savings by the end of the project;
Improved capacity and skills of at least 645 public administrators in CEE municipalities;
Better alignment of national and regional development plans with SECAPs in the CEESEU countries and improved national and regional sustainable energy and energy efficiency policies;
At least 25 min Euros of sustainable energy and climate change adaptation investments.
An important output of the PANEL2050 project was the formation of the Central and Eastern European Sustainable Energy Network (CEESEN) to spread project results and knowledge throughout the region. We shall also look to continue development of CEESEN to build more connections between actors working in the region.