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Towards Cross-border Energy Communities: a call for projects expected in July

The aim is to encourage the emergence or structuring of cross-border energy communities (CBEC), and to strengthen the cross-border dimension of those already established in a border territory (Q-CBEC). The project is a direct follow-up to the European Commission's EU Handbook on Cross-Border Energy Communities, published in January 2025.

What are CBECs (cross-border energy communities) and Q-CBECs (quasi-cross-border energy communities)?

Under the European Green Deal, citizens' energy communities have become a key tool in European energy policy to encourage local decarbonisation.
Energy communities enable citizens, local authorities and SMEs to join forces to collectively produce, share, distribute, store or manage energy, usually renewable energy, or to offer services related to energy efficiency.
Energy communities are generally divided into renewable energy communities (RECs) and citizen energy communities (CECs).
The emergence of these communities in cross-border territories remains complex because of technical, legal and administrative obstacles. The Handbook published by the European Commission provides an overview of energy communities that are referred to as cross-border (CBECs) or quasi-cross-border (Q-CBECs), i.e. supported by a cross-border structure or bringing together players, activities or funding from both sides of a border. It also identifies key obstacles and proposes a methodology for overcoming them.

A call for projects will be launched in July 2025

The European CBEC project supported by the MOT and the AEBR mobilises the knowledge produced in the Handbook to support border territories in creating or strengthening cross-border and quasi-cross-border energy communities. Through a call for projects, seven pilot projects (pilot actions) will be selected and will benefit from technical and financial support to create or develop their cross-border energy community. In addition to financial support, the pilot projects will receive technical assistance from REScoop.eu, the leading European network for energy communities. Through workshops, webinars, exchanges of practices and personalised technical support, REScoop.eu will help pilot projects to structure or consolidate their communities.

The call is aimed at projects led by cross-border structures or partnerships of players located on either side of the same border. The structures must be based in a NUTS 3 region located along a border (see map in the flyer presentation).
Each pilot will have to produce a roadmap defining the next steps to develop their community, following the LICHT scale, an implementation methodology developed by Rescoop.eu.
The call for projects will open soon, in July 2025, and close in November 2025. The MOT and the AEBR will then select the seven pilot projects. For any questions, please contact: cbec(at)mot.asso(dot)fr

Presentation flyer with a map showing the NUTS3 border areas.
Handbook on Energy Communities, with examples of (Q-)CBEC: https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sources/studies/2025/Handbook_on_Cross-border_Energy_Communities.pdf
Rescoop: https://www.rescoop.eu/the-rescoop-model