News item | 18-02-2023 | 10:00 am
Ministers Micky Adriaansens (Economic Affairs and Climate) and Karien van Gennip (Social Affairs and Employment) will give the go-ahead for the Dutch part (623) in Groningen on Monday 20 February, together with EU Commissioner Elisa Ferreira (Cohesion and Reforms), regional and local administrators. million euros) of it Just Transition Fund (JTF). This is an EU fund to enable a fair transition to a more sustainable economy. The regions of Groningen-Emmen, IJmond, Groot-Rijnmond, West North Brabant, Zeeuws-Vlaanderen and South Limburg will receive this extra support.
The EU will make this money available up to and including 2027 to these six Dutch regions that have additional challenges to make the economy more sustainable and to strengthen the labor market. In this way they can contribute to the European ambition to be climate neutral by 2050.
Minister Adriaansens (EZK): “The electrification of industrial processes, the use of green hydrogen and the use of bio-raw materials in chemistry. Three examples of relevant steps to realize a strong, future-proof economy through sustainability. It Just Transition Fund gives an extra push to residents and businesses in, for example, regions with a relatively large amount of energy-intensive industry. In addition to investments in technology and energy infrastructure, we can also use the money to train and retrain people for new green and digital jobs.”
Minister Van Gennip (SZW): “The Netherlands is becoming more sustainable. This calls for different ways of working and therefore also different types of jobs. To help with this, together with local organizations, a total of 1.2 billion euros is being invested. A considerable amount with which we can really make a difference to make local economies climate neutral and train people for a different type of work. I think it is important that attention is paid to a diverse labor market and that each region can work on what is most relevant to them.”
The six regional grant programs officially opened in January to applicants such as SMEs. Given the major impact of the climate transition and the scaling down of natural gas extraction in the Groningen/Emmen region, more than half of the allocated Dutch JTF resources (330 million euros) will go to this region. The other five regions each receive €58.5 million from the EU. In addition, regions must also spend their own resources on these programmes. These investments must be at least as high as the allocated EU funds.