On the 13th of November an information meeting took place at Confederation of Portuguese Industry (CIP) headquarters, in Lisbon, with the purpose of introducing the Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Area 2014-2021, focusing on the opportunities to companies and business associations.
The Financial Mechanism as a whole was presented by the National Focal Point, followed by presentations from the Environment Programme, the Blue Growth Programme and from the Gender Equality Programme.
The Environment, Climate Change and Low Carbon Economy Programme was presented by Susana Escária, on behalf of the Programme Operator, the Secretary General for Environment and Energy Transition, highlighting the main objectives:
- Increasing the application of circular economy principles in targeted sectors,
- Increase Climate Change resilience and responsiveness,
- and Valorization of the territory,
underling the priority projects to fund, with particular interest to the entrepreneurial sector, stressing as well that priority will be given to partnerships with companies from the donor countries.
The launching of circular economy projects, as well as the ones related to the decarbonisation of society were the ones that raised more questions from the audience, being informed that calls for such areas would be launched over 2019 and that specific information sessions will always occur, in advance, and widely advertised, namely through CIP and directly to all the associations present.