ACP-EU Energy Facility
The Energy Facility is a co-financing instrument established in 2005 in order to support projects on increasing access to sustainable and affordable energy services for the poor living in rural and peri-urban areas in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.
More than 1.6 billion people in the world mainly concentrated in rural and peri-urban areas of developing countries do not have access to electricity. The situation is particularly severe in African, Caribbean and Pacifique (ACP) countries, where the rate of access to electricity can be as low as 10% in rural areas. Access to energy is nonetheless a fundamental prerequisite for economic growth and social well-being.
The European Commission established the ACP-EU Energy Facility within the EU Energy Initiative for Poverty Eradication and Sustainable Development (EUEI). The EUEI was launched by the European Union in 2002 during the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) with the aim of making energy a priority to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), more particularly in terms of poverty alleviation and eradication.
A second Energy Facility (EFII), with a total budget of €200 million, has been established under the 10th European Development Fund for the period 2009-2013.
The second Energy Facility will be implemented through different modalities. A € 100 million call for proposals, launched in November 2009, resulted in the selection of 65 projects 
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for funding. The Pooling Mechanism blends grants from the 10th EDF Energy Facility with loans from the EU multilateral and bilateral finance institutions. Its guidelines [82 KB] were approved in October 2010. The EUEI-Partnership Dialogue Facility (EUEI-PDF) is a flexible mechanism for supporting the energy policies and strategies of partner countries.
The second Energy Facility follows the successful implementation of the first Energy Facility, launched in 2005 under the 9th European Development Fund with a total budget of €220 million. Almost seven million people should benefit from the 74 projects co-financed by the first Energy Facility.