Covenant of Mayors in Eastern Partnership turns 10 Years!

Starting November 29, over 200 representatives from the Eastern Partnership countries including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, and the EU Member States met in Tbilisi for a two-day conference dedicated to the 10^th anniversary of the EU Covenant of Mayors (CoM) in the Eastern Partnership region.

After the official launch of CoM East III, over 30 experts shared their national projects and lessons learned on technical, financing, project management and citizens engagement aspects through 4 panel discussions and 4 workshops. Speakers presented the progress achieved by the Covenant and its signatories and reaffirmed the EU’s strong political will to support EaP authorities in designing and implementing sustainable policies.

The event offered opportunities to discuss the main bottlenecks and barriers encountered by the signatory cities, and provided effective recipes for success. It also outlined the future of the initiative and EU support to EaP municipalities in the perspective of the Green Deal and other European initiatives.

Covenant of Mayors EP High Level Conference

The Armenian delegation comprised of around 20 national experts and representatives of local authorities participated the Covenant of Mayors Steering Committee meeting and the two-day conference. Armenian delegates presented the following topics:

10 YEARS OF COM IN THE EAP REGION: RESULTS, RECIPES FOR SUCCESS AND LESSONS LEARNED – Samvel Balasanyan, Mayor of Gyumri
FUNDING GREEN PROJECTS: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES – Astghine Pasoyan, Director of Energy Saving Foundation (ESF) Armenia
CITIZENS’ ENGAGEMENT INTO CLIMATE ACTIONS DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION – Nune Sakanyan, President of Women in Climate and Energy NGO
MUNICIPAL SOLAR PV POWER PLANT IN ARTIK COMMUNITY – Njdeh Andriazian, Energy Expert at ESF Armenia
ROOF-BASED PV STATIONS IN YEREVAN – Nana Abelyan, Project Manager of EU4Yerevan. Solar Community project
ARMENIA: INVESTMENT IN ENERGY EFFICIENT BUILDING RETROFITS – Armen Grigoryan, Mayor of Stepanavan.

The Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy aims to increase support for local activities, provide a platform for greater engagement and networking by cities, and raise public awareness about adaptation and mitigation and the measures needed.