Everything about EU Sustainable Development
and Funding

Horizon Europe is the ambitious EU research & innovation framework program for 2021-2027 with a budget of €95.5 billion!

Its overarching goals are:

• to strengthen the EU's scientific and technological bases and the European Research Area (ERA);
• to boost Europe's innovation capacity, competitiveness and jobs;
• to deliver on citizens' priorities and sustain our socio-economic model and values.

The Innovation Fund is one of the world’s largest funding programs for the deployment of net-zero and innovative technologies.

With a revenue of €40 billion from 2020 to 2030 from the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), the Innovation Fund aims to create financial incentives for companies and public authorities to invest in cutting-edge low-carbon technologies and support Europe's transition to climate neutrality.

The Innovation Fund aims to:

• help businesses invest in clean energy and industry
• boost economic growth
• create future-proof jobs
• reinforce European technological leadership on a global scale.

Digital Europe Program is the first EU program that aims to accelerate the recovery and drive the digital transformation of Europe.

Worth €7.6 billion (in current prices), the program is a part of the next long-term EU budget, (the Multiannual Financial Framework), and it covers 2021 to 2027.

It provides funding for projects in five crucial areas:

• supercomputing
• artificial intelligence
• cybersecurity
• advanced digital skills
• ensuring the wide use of digital technologies across the economy and society.

The European Maritime Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF) supports the implementation of the Common Fisheries Policy, the EU Maritime Policy, and the EU agenda for international ocean governance.

With a budget of € 6.108 billion for the period 2021-2027, EMFAF helps achieve sustainable fisheries, conserve marine biological resources, and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 14, and it fulfills the objectives of the European Green Deal.

EMFAF management is divided between.

• direct management - € 797 million is provided directly by the European Commission services or delegated to CINEA, with the relative calls being published in this Portal.
• shared management - € 5.311 billion is provided through national programs co-funded by the EU budget and EU countries, with each country receiving the same percentage of the fund's budget as during the previous period, 2014-2020.

The EU Renewable Energy Financing Mechanism is one of the main EU financing programs contributing to the clean energy transition.

It allows all EU countries that take part in it and to share the statistical benefits of the produced renewable energy. The contributing country voluntarily pays into the mechanism. This payment is then linked to new renewable energy projects built on the territory of the hosting country through competitive tenders.

The project will receive grants covering either the installation of a renewable energy production facility with a certain capacity (investment support) or the actual production of renewable energy (operating support). The size of the grant is determined by the outcome of the tender procedure.

With a budget of 4.2 bn EUR over this MFF, the Single Market Program (SMP) covers the single market, competitiveness of enterprises, including small and medium-sized enterprises, the area of plants, animals, food and feed, and European statistics.

The SMP brings together these aspects to streamline and exploit synergies and provide for a more flexible, transparent, simplified and agile framework to finance activities aiming at a well-functioning sustainable internal market.

The European Fund for Sustainable Development Plus (EFSD+) is the financing arm of Global Gateway, promoting sustainable investments in the European Union’s (EU) partner countries.

Offering a variety of risk-sharing instruments of up to €40 billion, the EFSD+ aims to mobilize up to €135 billion of public and private financing to help partner countries achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The EFSD+ Guarantee is deployed via a range of development finance institutions, which act as the EU’s implementation partners on the ground. The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the largest implementation partner for the EFSD+ Guarantee, alongside the other Team Europe partners. Explore the Team Europe Guarantees in the button below. More guarantees are underway to reach a total of 40 by the end of 2024.

Active since 2007, it supports the transition of Asia, the Middle East and the Pacific to a low-carbon, resource-efficient, and circular economy while promoting sustainable production and consumption patterns, and greener supply chains between these regions and Europe.

Since its launch, 143 projects have been funded with an average grant size of EUR 1.7 million across a wide range of sectors including energy efficiency in industrial plants and houses, agri-food and fishing sectors, textiles and leather, tourism, logistics and freight. These have been implemented by over 500 Asian and European partners and more than 100 private sector associates.