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	LIFE Programme
	Newsletter

In this issue - December 2017
Warm wishes from the LIFE team. Before ringing in the New Year, we get into the winter spirit with projects working on warm clothes, reindeer, pine trees, and a look back on 2017.
Highlight News		Events Project news

Highlight

Flashback 2017

Both harsh and hopeful headlines made environmental news in 2017. Through a year racked by forest fires and hurricanes, the LIFE-programme has continued to support green citizen-led initiatives, clean-tech start-ups, and broader participation in global climate talks.

News

European Solidarity Corps volunteers deployed via LIFE projects to help save nature

Over the past 12 months, more than 40 000 young people from all countries in the EU have signed up to the European Solidarity Corps. The European Commission has launched a first call for LIFE-funded projects to deploy these volunteers in efforts to preserve Natura 2000 sites.

Keeping alien invaders out

There are close to a thousand invasive alien species living in Europe today. Experts from LIFE-funded projects met in Milan on 29 November to stop these recent arrivals from damaging local infrastructure, raising health risks and threatening biodiversity in the EU.

Poster of Invasive Alien Species meeting showing a snake

Experts on Blue Economy needed

The European Commission is looking for experts on the blue economy to help select project proposals for funding through the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund. Experts in business development, marine ecosystem restoration and international cooperation can register online.

Poster for the event saying experts needed

LIFE mid-term evaluation

The LIFE programme is on track to be effective, efficient, relevant, complementary and to provide EU added value. Those are the main findings of the mid-term evaluation of the only EU programme exclusively dedicated to the environment, nature conservation and climate action.

Events

4 May 2018

LIFE Information Day 2018

Save the date. The European Commission is organising an Information & Networking Day on the 2018 LIFE call for project proposals. The event will introduce new funding opportunities for projects on green technology, nature conservation and climate action.

4 - 10 June 2018

EU Sustainable Energy Week

The next EU Sustainable Energy Week will take place in June 2018. Following a month of Energy Days organised all over Europe, the event will feature a ceremony for the EUSEW Awards, and a three-day policy conference in Brussels that will be open to the public.

Project news

How pine trees help keep the North Pole cool

A new study shows how selectively thinning trees can restore degraded pine forests and help contain the onset of climate change. Researchers also claim that the innovative silvicultural treatment makes forests nicer to visit and more valuable to their communities.

Unfit for waste

Ever wondered what happens to all those gift-wrapped socks after Christmas? A report by the European Clothing Action Plan (ECAP) predicts that most of the 6 million tonnes of clothing purchased by EU shoppers in 2015 will end up in landfills in less than five years.

Finns welcome Rudolph’s wild cousin home

The wild forest reindeer (Rangifer tarandus fennicus) is making a comeback in the EU. Once common in the snowy forests of Finland, the subspecies became extinct there in the early 20th century. LIFE-funded efforts are now helping to bring it home.

Wild forest reindeer crossing the street

About this e-mail

The LIFE newsletter is issued 10 times per year by the European Commission's Directorate General for the Environment and the Executive Agency for SMEs (EASME). The content of the newsletter does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the institutions of the European Union.

Visit the LIFE programme website at: http://ec.europa.eu/life

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