LIFE+ FUND

LIFE+ is the European financial instrument for the environment, for the period from 1 January 2007 until 31 December 2013.

With a budget of €2.143 billion (for the period 2007-2013), LIFE+ is a limited but focused funding instrument providing specific support for the development and implementation of Community environmental policy and legislation, in particular the objectives of the 6th EAP (Decision 1600/2002/EC) and resulting thematic strategies. It comprises three components:

• LIFE+ Nature & Biodiversity
• LIFE+ Environment Policy & Governance
• LIFE+ Information & Communication

At least 78% of LIFE+ will be for the co-financing of project action grants, of which at least 50% will be for nature and biodiversity projects. The European Commission will use the remaining sum for operational expenses.

The Commission will organize the annual call for proposals and, with the help of external experts, will select, revise and monitor the projects and be responsible for making the appropriate payments. Member States will forward the project proposals to the Commission, may set national priorities and objectives (from 2008 onwards) and may prepare comments on proposals, in particular in relation to national annual priorities.

REGULATION (EC) No 614/2007 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 23 May 2007 concerning the Financial Instrument for the Environment (LIFE+)

LIFE+ Information & Communication projects aiming at awareness raising campaigns and communication actions on environmental issues. Such campaigns and actions should primarily be national or transnational, and should be linked to the implementation, updating and development of EU environmental policy and legislation related, for example, to nature and biodiversity, water, energy, waste, climate change, etc.
Under this heading, the EC encourages the submission of proposals for awareness raising campaigns and communication actions on nature protection and biodiversity matters, in order to support the implementation of the Commission's communication 'Halting the loss of biodiversity by 2010' and the attached Action Plan8.
The EC would also be interested to receive, amongst others, result-oriented proposals that would take the results of a significant number of previous LIFE projects in a given sector and actively transfer them to the key stakeholders of that sector that could usefully implement these results.
The maximum co-financing rate will be 50%.