Cycling is a key solution to help achieve the EU’s climate goals

ECF has for many years been a grateful beneficiary of the LIFE Programme’s operating grant for civil society organisations. Cycling fits extremely well within the LIFE Programme’s goals, as it contributes significantly to the decarbonisation of transport, creates many benefits for economy and society, and greatly improves citizens’ quality of life.

Operating grants from the LIFE Programme have supported ECF’s ability to speak on behalf of the hundreds of millions of European citizens who cycle now and in the future for mobility and leisure. We have used this very important EU financial support to raise awareness of the massive benefits of cycling for citizens in both urban and rural spaces, on policy analysis and research to enhance the evidence base for cycling’s potential to reduce transport emissions, and on innovative methods to track how cities and regions are developing and implementing policies to enable more of their citizens to cycle safely.

A strong civil society upholds the EU’s goals

The LIFE Programme is the EU’s only funding programme dedicated to environmental, climate and energy objectives. To date, it has financed more than 5,000 projects, all of which have been focused on contributing to the shift towards a clean, circular, energy efficient, climate-neutral and climate-resilient economy, as well as to the transition to clean energy and to the protection and improvement of the quality of the environment. The legal basis of the LIFE Programme is set in an EU law called the LIFE Regulation. It explicitly prioritises the involvement of civil society in implementing and enforcing EU policies on environment, climate, pollution, ocean and energy. The EU enacts this priority by allocating a small fraction of the programme’s funding as operating grants for civil society organisations that meet the criteria and aims of the LIFE Regulation.

In total, the LIFE Programme represents less than 0.3% of the EU’s budget. Civil society operating grants administered by this programme amount to €15.6 million per year, or 0.006% of the EU’s budget. Unlike stakeholders with considerable resources such as foreign governments and multinational corporations and businesses, European citizens and civil society organisations have way fewer means and capabilities to engage in public dialogue at the EU level. The tiny amount of EU spending for civil society delivers outsized benefits to society, and helps to balance the playing field between citizen engagement and corporate interests.

Civil society is a backbone and a legal necessity for European democracy

Civil society organisations are essential for bridging the gap between EU policymakers and citizens. This is necessary to safeguard transparency, nurture trust and drive solutions to collective urgent challenges such as enabling more EU citizens to use sustainable and active mobility. Upholding civil society is a political commitment made by all EU institutions,

Civil society engagement is also enshrined in the Treaty of the European Union as a cornerstone of participatory democracy. Public participation, particularly in environmental decision-making, is not only a legal right but essential for cultivating trust, inclusivity and credibility in EU actions.

EU civil society funding follows the highest standards of transparency

Operating grants to civil society from the LIFE Programme require beneficiaries to adhere to very high standards of transparency and accountability.

In every instance in which ECF has applied for LIFE Programme operating grant support, we have followed a competitive, thorough and independent process of evaluation against the objectives of the LIFE Regulation and the LIFE call for proposals. We have set our budget to ensure the most cost-effective use of public funds, and to attract additional co-funding to generate an even greater added value. We have been bound by principles of transparent accountability in EU funding through regular monitoring, reporting and auditing. Moreover, ECF and all civil society beneficiaries of LIFE operating grants are part of the EU Transparency Register, a system that makes sources of funding and work activities are available to the European public.

ECF looks forward to continued opportunities to benefit from EU support to civil society. In signing the letter with 30 other NGOs to the EU institutions, we fully affirm our commitment to European democracy, transparency and the achievement of solutions that enable all Europeans to live well within our planetary boundaries – solutions for which we firmly believe cycling has a very important role to play.