European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency

President von der Leyen has been entrusted with a second mandate as Commission President, after negotiating support from 401 MEPs - more than the 361 votes she needed. The vote followed the release of the President’s Political Guidelines for 2024-2029, and a plenary debate in the European Parliament on 18 July.

The Commission adopted a new ‘Green Commuting Policy for Commission Staff in Brussels’, as part of the Communication on Greening the Commission which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from staff commutes by nearly half by 2030 compared to 2019 levels. This new policy enters into force as of 1 January 2025 and outlines a specific action plan to encourage more colleagues to commute by public transport, or to cycle, walk, or jog to work.

The Interinstitutional Style Guide is a vital companion for ensuring clarity, consistency and professionalism in our communications. Consulted daily by 6,500 users, this online guide for authors, translators, and proofreaders, has just been further enhanced by the Publications Office and has a new Europa-domain URL address.

At the end of this month we bid a warm farewell to our 12 Bluebook trainees who joined CINEA in March this year. We thank Alex, Andoni, Catalin, Emilis, Inês, Jelena, Karina Aparecida, Karla, Manon, Marcel, Pablo and Pavlos for their motivation, flexibility, commitment and important contribution to the Agency’s work in the past few months.

The online 'Ideas box' is available for all staff to submit and share ideas to improve our way of collaborating and communicating together. The latest batch of ideas received, together with an answer from the relevant services, has just been published - have a look and don’t be shy with your ideas!

After 8 months of an intensive learning journey, the 36 participants of the 2023-2024 cohort graduated in May 2024 and joined the Commission Cyber Ambassadors’ network. Malgorzata Kucek, Administrative Assistant at C1 is our newly graduated Cyber Ambassador here at CINEA. Malgorzata shared her positive experience with the programme.

Is your summer reading list not ready yet? To help you choose which books to pretend to read at the beach, we have asked colleagues around the Agency what they have been reading recently...or which books they will be packing in their suitcases.

Over EUR 7 billion have been allocated through CEF to 134 projects that will contribute to delivering a sustainable, smart, environmentally friendly and resilient transport infrastructure network. The new projects will build or upgrade transport infrastructure to enhance railways, inland waterways, roads and short-sea shipping routes. Some projects will also connect to inland or maritime ports, airports and multimodal terminals.

The five awarded Actions involve five EU countries (Estonia, Latvia, The Netherlands, Germany and Poland) and cover sectors such as offshore and onshore wind, biomass, district heating and green hydrogen/ammonia. In the meantime, three more projects have obtained the status required to be part of the List of Renewable Energy Cross-border Projects under CEF Energy.

From monitoring Irish air quality to reducing chemical use in Hungarian homes; from encouraging greener choices in Italy to cleaning up water in Lithuania and Poland - across Europe, LIFE environmental governance projects are changing lives.

Glass production is an energy-intensive process and is one of the most difficult industrial sectors to decarbonise. Worldwide, 75% of container glass is produced in so-called “end-fired regenerative furnaces” which rely heavily on fossil fuels. Less polluting technologies, such as electric furnaces, are available but have a shorter lifespan. The BEAR project (EUR 2.2 million from the Innovation Fund) is set to revolutionise this landscape by creating a new type of furnace that combines the best of both technologies.

The Public Sector Loan Facility (PSLF) will support the construction of a new 1,300-seat concert hall in the city of Ostrava (Czechia) with a grant of EUR 21 million. The grant complements a loan of EUR 84 million awarded by the EIB and own financing of EUR 10.5 million. The project will support the development of cultural infrastructure and contribute to the revitalisation of Ostrava, a former mining city which still maintains the traditional production of steel.

The updated Agency biomethane portfolio comprises 40 projects funded by Horizon Energy, LIFE Climate and Environment, CEF Transport and the Innovation Fund. The projects contribute to the creation of a competitive European market for biomethane. The portfolio analysis aims at supporting the work of DG ENER in the context of the Biomethane Industrial Partnership within the framework of the Commission’s REPowerEU plan - to rapidly reduce dependence on Russian fossil fuels and fast forward the green transition.

An info session presenting key information and tips on how to master the professional use of X and LinkedIn social media platforms will take place on 12 September. Participants are encouraged to be there in person and actively take part with their questions. The session targets CINEA staff interested in using social media for professional purposes.

A permanent call for expression of interest for internal mobility has been launched. The call is one of the actions from the Inter-Agency HR Strategy to promote career development within CINEA, and it replaces the standard internal vacancy publications. For the eligibility criteria and application process, visit CINEAnet.

In our popular series of short ‘Meet your colleagues’ interviews, we met with Julie Ghorain, HR Officer - Career development and Training in Unit A4 "HR, IT & Logistics". Let us know if you would like to be next!

Remember the launch of the CINEA herb garden in June? The first results are now here - the basil and mint have blossomed, and the first leaves are ready to be used. Do not forget to cut the leaves but leave the plant so it can blossom again and provide more herbs for everyone!

Join the next Staff Assembly which will take place on 3 September (Tuesday) from 10:00 to 11:30, in a hybrid format. The meeting will be dedicated to the 2023 Staff Survey results follow-up. The Working Group set up to develop different actions to be included in the action plan will present the outcome of their work. Staff will be able to vote on the different actions before they are sent to the Commission by 6 September.