One of tools, supporting the European Commission in addressing environmental problems and monitoring the implementation of European environmental legislation, are public opinion polls. In autumn 2017 one such public opinion poll was conducted in all 28 member states, namely on the attitude of European citizens towards the environment (Special Eurobarometer 468). The results show a high support for LIFE and similar mechanisms in Slovenia (92%).
Awareness of the environmental problem is the first step towards solving it. In order to help member states solve environmental problems, the European Commission has set up a LIFE programme, a financial mechanism that has been funding projects for environmental protection, nature conservation and climate action for 25 years. The recognition of the LIFE programme and similar financial mechanisms was one of the topics of the study. The vast majority of Europeans (85%) agrees that the European Union should invest more money in projects and programmes, supporting environmental protection, nature conservation and mitigation and adaptation to climate change.
When determining the budget, the efficiency of the LIFE programme also plays an important role: how successful are the approved LIFE projects, how effectively do they address environmental problems. For this reason, at the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning, the LIFE Capacity Building Slovenia project is being carried out for the third year, which is intended not only for the promotion of the LIFE programme, but above all for strengthening of Slovenian applicants to be more successful in acquiring LIFE funds and in implementing LIFE projects.
Among others, we are organizing a series of three writer’s workshops, where participants will learn on individual steps of the process of developing the project idea into a project application. The first workshop was held in Ljubljana last week. Over two days over 70 participants attended the workshop. All materials and photos from the workshop are available on our website.
