As the community energy sector matures, a common trend is emerging across Europe: federations begin to form. These structures play a crucial role in uniting community energy actors to collectively overcome systemic barriers, pool resources, and deliver services that individual communities cannot easily provide alone. Their support includes: 

  • Coordinating capacity building programmes and providing guidance to projects from conception to completion via one-stop shops.
  • Engaging a broad ecosystem of enabling actors, including energy agencies, municipalities, financial institutions, SMEs, NGOs, and sector representatives.
  • Developing financing schemes to support new community energy projects (e.g., revolving funds).
  • Supporting networking, data collection, advocacy and communications activities.

Thus, federations or national coalitions play a key role in helping the community energy sector mature at the national level by attracting private capital, fostering social acceptance for the transition, and accelerating the development of new renewable energy projects. 

While federations have been active in various Western European countries for many years (e.g., the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany), they are now also emerging in several Central and Eastern European countries (e.g., Croatia, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovenia). Work from the LIFE COMET project highlights how such secondary structures are key to building legitimacy, strengthening capacity, and improving access to finance and tools for local initiatives in countries where the maturity of energy communities is still growing. By mutualising expertise, providing training, and offering legal and technical support, they reduce project risks and accelerate the development of new community energy projects.

Key enabling factor: structural funding

Federations need stable, multi-year funding to keep supporting energy communities. This is already happening in Belgium, where the regional federations in Wallonia, REScoop Wallonie, and Flanders, REScoop Flanders, have secured government grants. 

REScoop Wallonie has received a 3-year grant of €300,000. This has enabled them to hire two full-time employees and set a clear path towards achieving financial independence by 2030. REscoop Wallonie will implement the following specific actions:

  • Carry out communications actions to raise awareness about the federation and its members
  • Promote and share a vision for the social economy in Wallonia, while embedding energy communities as a social actor
  • Network and exchange best practices with other sectors of the social economy 
Cociter Courant d'air campaign
© REScoop Wallonie

Wallonia has a long history of social economy, which is embedded in the culture and governance of the region – there is even a dedicated minister in charge of the issue. REScoop Wallonie will now leverage this grant to begin an innovative data collection process, mapping the social impact and social return on investment of its members. 

Similarly, the Department of the Environment of the Flemish government has provided REScoop Flanders with a structural grant of €148,000 per year for the period 2025–2026. The regional federation will use it to:

  • Become a central point for the energy transition in Flanders, raising awareness, increasing social acceptance, and helping residents access clean energy solutions.
  • Professionalise internally, while assisting its members to expand their services
  • Contribute to reaching the Flemish environmental goals on renewable energy

“This structural funding is the foundation of our work in Flanders and recognises our federation as an important player in the energy transition. With these resources, we can increase the impact of citizen-led energy cooperatives and provide better support to our members,” said Anton Gerits, General Coordinator of REScoop Flanders.

REScoop Flanders is now working on a proposal to prolong this structural grant from the Flemish government for the period 2027-2031.

A model for all European countries

The Belgian regions of Wallonia and Flanders offer a blueprint for all European countries. By allocating structural funding to their community energy federations, they ensure a peer-to-peer approach to the energy transition. This fosters trust, co-ownership, and acceptance, ultimately speeding it up.

A similar initiative has shown successful outcomes in France. Regional authorities have leveraged the European Regional Development Fund to provide structural support to Energie Partagée, the national federation of energy communities. Using this grant, Energie Partagée has been able to visit households, municipalities and SMEs, helping them develop community energy projects, or join existing ones. 

Moreover, this institutional recognition of federations can be considered part of the creation of an enabling framework for energy communities, which is a legal obligation for Member States under Article 22 of the Renewable Energy Directive. A clear example is a recent letter from the Dutch government to the national Parliament, formally acknowledging Energie Samen, the national federation of energy communities, as a key stakeholder in the energy sector with whom institutions should collaborate.

REScoop.eu calls on the European Commission and Member States to emulate this successful model of acknowledging and supporting national federations of energy communities. The upcoming Citizens Energy Package and the negotiations for the next EU budget (2028-2034) present important opportunities to institutionally acknowledge and structurally support community energy federations.

As set out in REScoop.eu’s recommendations for the 2028-2034 EU budget, the most effective way to ensure EU (and national) funds actually reach energy communities is to partner up with national federations.

NRR Ps copy

Belgium has shown the way. Now other Member States should follow suit.