The EU Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Elisa Ferreira, presented the new EU financing program for the Austrian regions in Vienna on Thursday. According to Ferreira, the European Commission has approved 600 million euros for investments in the Austrian regions by 2027. Supplemented with national co-financing resources and own resources from the project sponsors, a total investment amount of 1.8 billion euros would be available for the Austrian regions.
The payments were made under the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the new Fund for a Just Transition to a Climate Neutral Economy (JTF), Ferreira said during a joint press conference with Agriculture Minister Norbert Totschnig, Lower Austrian provincial councilor. Martin Eichtinger (both ÖVP) and the Vienna City Councilor for Finance Peter Hanke (SPÖ). “Including further funding, notably under Territorial Cooperation and the European Social Fund, Austria will receive around EUR 1.3 billion in EU cohesion policy funding in the current financial period 2021-2027,” the Portuguese continued. EU Commissioner.
2000 new jobs
More than 1,800 companies would benefit, 2,000 new jobs would be created and more than 700 researchers would be supported, Ferreira said. Half of the funds would be available for investment in innovation and competitiveness. The aim is to give smaller companies access to innovation-friendly technologies. Ferreira was convinced that the Russian aggression in Ukraine had made it clear that Europe needed to become independent from fossil fuels. The first thing to do is reduce dependence on Russian gas, and the best way to do that is to save by increasing efficiency and innovating. In addition, work is underway at Commission level to better manage market mechanisms in the long term, the EU Commissioner explains.
Totschnig was pleased that “the Austrian EU funding program” was one of the first “to be approved by the Commission”. “We are pursuing three goals with this: increasing productivity. Sustainable shaping of the economy and society and ensuring quality of life in urban and rural regions,” emphasized the Minister of Agriculture. According to Totschnig, some regions in Upper Austria, Styria, Lower Austria and Carinthia are under special pressure to because of their greenhouse gas-intensive economic structure.”With the new €76 million fund, we support selected regions in their transformation process.”
“The future of the climate is determined in cities”
“The future of our climate will be decided in the cities,” emphasized Hanke, referring to Vienna’s goal of being carbon neutral by 2040. “In 2026, we will invest approximately 6.2 billion euros in the energy transition through Wiener Stadtwerke. 91 percent of these investments are climate-friendly and help reduce emissions.” Thanks to EU support, the Simmering heat pump, which has saved some 150,000 tons of CO2 since 2019, will provide “around 140,000 households with climate-friendly heat in the final stage of development.”
Eichtinger explained that since 1995 in Lower Austria “more than 15,000 jobs have been created and 50,000 jobs have been secured thanks to the regional programs alone”. According to the Lower Austria provincial council, more than 6,000 projects have been supported with EU funds and a total investment volume of EUR 4 billion has been launched. Above all, the “cross-border cooperation programmes” are of great importance “because they improve the quality of life of the population in border regions and make an important contribution to European integration and peacekeeping”.
Source: Krone
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