Main features-Investment priority PI.4.3:

EO 4.3.1. Increase the EE and reduce the CO2 emissions in buildings, infrastructures and public services, presents 3 axes of intervention:

• Improvement of EE in housing sector
• Improvement of EE in public buildings
• Retrofitting of buildings and infrastructures

OE.9.7.1.”Investment in social and health infrastructures in order to reduce social inequality” covers the construction of social infrastructures and the construction of health centres.

Tables 32 and 72 of the OP show that the full amount of budget in both OE are addressed to funding tool 1 (non-refundable grant system), among the 7 possible tools provided by the OP. The assigned budget for this policy tool is 33.023.700 € for the full period 2014-2020. 

Why it should be improved:

In the current and precedent OPs only non-refundable grants were selected to invest the budget of the energy priorities. This model has worked until the moment, the situation has changed and new tools are under development in Europe which could better manage the 33M€ of the priority 4.3.1.

ROP is one of the programs integrated in the 2014-2020 Partnership Agreement.

The objective of ROP is to increase economic competitiveness and improve living conditions of local and regional communities by supporting business development, infrastructural conditions and services to ensure sustainable development of the regions, capable of managing the resources efficiently, exploit their innovation potential and assimilation of technological progress.

Regional Operational Program – Axis 3 “Supporting the transition to a low carbon economy” has 2 major investment priorities:  

• Supporting energy efficiency, intelligent energy management and renewable energy use in public infrastructures, including public buildings and the housing sector
• Promote strategies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions for all types of territories, in particular, urban areas, including promoting sustainable urban mobility plans and relevant measures to mitigate adjustments.  

The policy instrument is very relevant for the rehabilitation and modernization of the existent building stock and represents a strong support for the municipalities to improve the energy efficiency of the buildings in a modern and sustainable way. However, this policy instrument could be considerably improved in order to have more targeted measures for providing innovative measures which address the current needs while interconnecting with other similar policy instruments at national level in a smart way. 

Main priorities

Priority axe 2.6 - Energy Efficiency - Investment priority 1: Supporting energy efficiency, smart energy management and renewable energy use in public infrastructure, including in public buildings, and in the housing sector; Specific objective 1: Energy-efficient housing sector and street lighting, and increased share of renewable energy in final consumption.

Priority axe 2.9 Sustainable Urban development: supporting sustainable development strategies of five larger urban areas in Estonia, one of them being Tartu.

Objective: Increasing energy efficiency in houses, public buildings and public lightning systems, especially big energy consumers.

This priority will support green measures for public buildings targeting deep renovation, including thermal insulation, rehabilitation and upgrading of heating systems and installations, lightning and energy management system of the buildings. All public buildings owned or administrated by central and local authorities and institutions, will be eligible for funding.  

The program is based on the concentration of investments into 9 thematic objectives of the Common Strategic Framework and their respective investment priorities.

The main goals of this policy instrument in thematic objective ‘energy’ is to increase the use of renewable energy sources (RES) and energy efficiency (EE), especially in final energy consumption, thus providing multiple benefits such as reduction of emissions, decrease in consumption and related expenses, and increasing the security of supply; and provide opportunity for green jobs and technological/manufaturing development.

Partner’s focus in this project will be thematic objective “Supporting the shift towards a low-carbon economy in all sectors“ within investments priority “Supporting energy efficiency, smart energy management and renewable energy use in public infrastructure, including in public buildings, and in the housing sector”. The operational program provides significant and relevant support in all areas that account for most of the energy demand. 100 million Euro budget is foreseen for refurbishment of residential building sector. The policy foresees only one social criterion, namely the development index of the municipality where building is located. The intensity of financial support is directly related to the index, where most underdeveloped areas will get double as big support as the most developed areas. Furthermore, the policy instrument does not recognize social housing buldings.

The policy instrument refers to the Regional Operational Program – North – Thematic Objective 4 – Support the transition towards a low carbon economy in all sectors; Priority 4c – Support energy efficiency, intelligent energy management and the use of renewable energy sources in public infrastructures; Specific Objective - To raise energy efficiency in the social housing sector, supporting the implementation of integrated measures of promotion of energy efficiency and rationalizing consumption.

The instrument supports interventions related to energy efficiency in the social housing sector. These interventions are restricted to public buildings. Energy audits are needed before launching the urban operations.

The improvements of this instrument need to be centered in the following areas: involvement of stakeholders; enlargement of the target group; and combination with other Financial Instruments. 

This policy instruments will be approached by 2 partners: CCDR-N and INTELI.