OpenLobby.EU
Explore

European network for community-led initiatives on climate change and sustainability

ECOLISE

ECOLISE pursues three strategic goals: Cultivating a cohesive, integrated network of change-making networks, organisations, groups and people that co-create and inspire a holistic culture of regeneration. Expanding public and political awareness of the potential of empowered communities to positively transform societies and to help reach ambitious local to global level policy goals. Developing a dynamic and inclusive framework for collaboration, sharing of knowledge, research, learning and capacity-building to support communities to engage in and spread transformative action on the ground.

Lobbying Activity

Response to Citizens energy package – protecting and empowering consumers in the just transition

1 Aug 2025

The evidence suggests that multiple barriers prevent citizen engagement in energy communities and other aspects of the energy transition. In particular, citizens and local communities often lack the skills, resourcing and organisational capacity to engage in energy initiatives. ECOLISE calls for more early-stage support, to mobilise citizen engagement and community-level organisation, develop knowledge and capacity, and test or pilot new ideas or concepts tailored to the local context. The European Commission's Communities for Climate (C4C) pilot initiative has already demonstrated the importance of expert support (facilitation and thematic expertise). ECOLISE's Regenerative Communities Fund (RCF) also demonstrates the importance of seed funding and capacity building. Catalysing citizen and community engagement requires local mobilisation and organisation (requiring facilitation support), expert advice and support, and small amounts of seed funding to conceive and test ideas (feasibility studies or other technical supports). Without this foundational support many citizens and communities will not reach a point where they can engage with the energy transition. ECOLISE and partners, including the network of over 3000 local action groups that deliver the EU's LEADER/CLLD programme, already have the reach and expertise to provide this kind of early stage or catalyst support that can significantly boost participation across Europe.
Read full response

Response to Review report on the Governance Regulation of the Energy Union and Climate Action

12 Jul 2023

The Governance of the Energy Union and Climate Action Regulation was designed to be the overarching governance mechanism of the Energy Union within the Clean Energy Package, before the release of the European Green Deal (EGD). Citizens and community-led initiatives such as regrouped within ECOLISE - the European network for community-led initiatives on climate change and sustainability action - play an essential role in the implementation of the Green Deal, as to reach transformative change, social change is needed, not only lifestyle change of individuals. CLIs such as transition towns, ecovillages and permaculture practitioners can inspire social change and thus need to be involved in the governance of the EGD. ECOLISE calls on the European Commission to continue building on the EGD in order to ensure a stable framework to achieve an adequate policy answer to the challenges of the planetary crisis, answering international agreements such as the Paris Agreement and the Montreal/ Kunming CBD. The revision of the Climate Law and of the Governance of the Energy Union and Climate Action Regulation (Governance Regulation) will play a crucial role, and the regulation could become the governing principle for the overall EGD with the Climate and Nature Restoration Laws as its central pieces of legislation, enabling member states to do National Green Plans. Local governance levels (municipalities) need to create strong multi-stakeholder pacts for the EGD, with citizens and communities at the heart What is needed for these "bio-regional pacts" is: binding standards for public participation (that at least fullfill / go beyond the Aarhus Convention and the current governance regulation) which puts collective action central: such as: support of healthy human/ human-nature networks; citizen assemblies, participative budgeting, basic income for community activists; strong legal frameworks on local levels (such as the EU Climate Law, upcoming Nature Restoration Law implemented locally); capacity building of municipalities and citizen-led collectives in cooperation (public participation - good practice examples: Community Climate Coaches, Municipalities in Transition). To be effective, a revision would need to include: --> a focus on implementation: demanding from national plans: - clear planning for localisation incl. short and mid-term goals, timelines, milestones and budgets - binding standards for public participation and involvement of citizens and community-led initiatives (CLIs) - dedicated funding and capacity building for local authorities and citizens/ CLIs for public participation and local/ regional planning - obligatory building on synergies/ inclusion of existing initiatives such as Local Action Groups (LAGs)/ LEADER CLLD; SECAPs (Covenant of Mayors) and CLIs for local and regional Green Plans - obligatory policy coherence for NECPs/ upcoming National Green Plans
Read full response

Meeting with Frans Timmermans (Executive Vice-President) and European Environmental Bureau and

27 Oct 2020 · Business and investor support for higher ambition and the just transition

Response to Long term vision for rural areas

9 Sept 2020

ECOLISE believes that the long term vision for rural areas must have a strong focus on localisation, but that this must also be part of a wider EU policy that also encompasses urban areas. The concentration of investment, employment and wealth has decimated both urban and rural communities, with devastating social and ecological impact. This process had been enabled by policies that have failed to adequately value social and ecological capital, thereby leaving small, local and eco and socially-responsible enterprise at an unfair disadvantage and unable to compete with larger enterprise that benefit from scale without being fully accountable for social for ecological impacts. In this context, ECOLISE calls for a new local development policy in Europe. EU local development policy, implemented currently through Community-Led Local Development (CLLD), has been instrumental in pioneering new innovations to support bottom-up decision making. However, decisive action is now needed to move EU local development policy into the mainstream as a central pillar of the European Green Deal. While there are many positive elements of the existing policy that should be retained, there are also limitations around the thematic and geographical scope of CLLD, and its accessibility to many citizens and communities that do not have the capacity or resources to navigate bureaucratic processes. There are also other EU policies that run counter to or undermine efforts to promote local development. This includes agricultural and industrial policies that still prioritise scale over sustainability, and economic and fiscal policies that fail to adequately take account of social and environmental impacts. As a result, local, socially-minded enterprises that adhere to high environmental standards are forced, unfairly, to compete with larger enterprises that benefit from economies of scale without the requirement to factor in social and environmental impacts. As we enter a period of unprecedented change, it is imperative that we work towards a new policy that puts citizens and local communities at the centre of the transition to a sustainable, resilient Europe. We need a policy that responds to the rapidly growing demand among citizens for a meaningful role in addressing the climate and ecological emergencies and in shaping the society of the future. A policy that responds to the urgent need to transition to a post-carbon economy and society, and that recognises the deep transformation needed to bring this about, including the revitalisation of local economies and a much greater share of community ownership. In this context, we are calling for a new EU local development policy, that priorities two main pillars: 1. Community building: with a special emphasis on promoting awareness of the new policy at the sub-local level (in villages and neighbourhoods) and supporting citizen engagement, organisational development and building capacity for active participation in local transformation processes. This could integrate many aspects of the existing Smart Villages initiative, but expanded to also include urban and fisheries areas, and with a clear emphasis on community-led transformation in the context of the climate and ecological emergency. This pillar should be presented to the public as a call to action, modeled on and developed in cooperation with the Communities for Future (CfF) initiative, including the annual European day of Sustainable Communities. The Community building pillar should support actions that prepare communities to progress to, and access support available through, pillar 2 (below). 2. Transitioning to the post-carbon economy and society: with a priority focus on supporting collective, community-based initiatives. These initiatives could cover four areas of intervention: economic, cultural, ecological and digital (more on this in the paper attached)
Read full response

Response to Climate Law

2 Apr 2020

With current 2030 reduction pledges, we are set on a pathway towards a 3-3.2°C increase in temperature. Countries, however, agreed in Paris to limit the increase in temperature to 1.5°C. The new European Commission has promised to place the fight against climate change at the center of its political agenda for the next 5 years with its European Green Deal. The showcased star instrument is the European Climate Law, to be drafted within 100 days in office. Climate Action Network and its members fully support the concept of a European Climate Law. Enshrining climate neutrality and 2030 targets within the law is a clear necessity but Climate Action Network also sees this Law as an instrument to work together towards achieving climate neutrality by 2050. For the Climate Law to have the desired impact it must include: - A binding climate neutrality date of 2040, and an enhanced 2030 target of 65% GHG emissions reduction. - A five-year review mechanism for EU climate and energy targets building on the common framework of the Governance Regulation. - Climate policy coherence (mainstreaming of climate policy), including best available reductions of GHG emissions in all major emissions sectors. - Independent scientific advisory and monitoring body to scrutinise the EU’s targets, and its plans and policies to tackle the climate emergency. - Binding phase-out dates for ending all exploration and use of fossil fuels and a ban on all subsidies, tax breaks, advertising and other benefits for fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas. - An obligation for meaningful public participation and engagement of citizens in further policy design with the aim to be a basis for a deep and just transition. - An EU-wide 'natural carbon sinks' policy that aligns climate objectives with protecting and restoring natural sinks and provides the right signals for restoring, conserving, enhancing and managing natural carbon sinks. - Alignment of public and private financing with a 1.5°C pathway.
Read full response