On 23 June, the EU announced the winners of the “Sustainable energy award of the Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries.” The projects from Armenia and Georgia won second and third place respectively. 

The EU project in Armenia focused on the phenomenon of energy poverty in the country, which impacts about 40% of the population, mostly rural towns and communities, and the contribution of civil society in dealing with the issue. The EU-supported initiative was comprised of Armenia, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Germany. It addressed the problem by introducing an innovative and effective approach for enabling civil society and media to get actively involved in behavioural change initiatives to increase energy-efficiency in local households and communities.

The project in Georgia emphasized the use of biomass energy and energy efficient technologies to fully retrofit two municipal kindergartens in the Telavi municipality. In addition, a pilot to establish a supply chain of locally available, environmentally friendly agricultural waste (vine pruning) was set up to produce energy to replace imported natural gas and unsustainably harvested wood fuel to operate modern autonomous heating systems. 

The Moldovan protect took first place, it installed a modern, energy efficient street lighting in the cities of Ocniţa and Cantemir in order to reduce CO2 emissions by 20%. One project from Belarus and two from Ukraine were also amongst the shortlisted candidates to receive the award. 

The sustainable energy award for EaP countries was launched in 2019 in order to showcase inspiring examples of innovative, local energy efficiency and renewable energy solutions from across the region that benefit both citizens and businesses alike. Energy efficiency is a key policy goal within the Eastern Partnership. Around €170 million has been invested in this field in the past ten years, with one tenth of the population in EaP countries having benefited from more energy efficient and affordable municipal infrastructure and services.