Fair Trading Fund

It will be an essential tool for helping the territories most affected by the transition to climate neutrality, by providing them with tailor-made support. This fund is implemented under shared management, in the general context of cohesion policy, which is the EU's main policy for reducing regional disparities and tackling structural change in the EU.

The Fund will have a budget of 17.5 billion euros (at 2018 prices; 19.2 billion euros in current prices). This amount corresponds to new funds made available to support EU countries in their ecological transition: 7.5 billion euros will be financed under the 2021-2027 EU budget, while the remaining 10 billion euros will constitute external earmarked revenues from the European Recovery Instrument (as such, they will be made available from 2021 to 2023).

Member States may, on a voluntary basis, transfer to the FTJ additional resources from their national allocations under the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) and the European Social Fund more (FSE+), provided that the total amount transferred does not exceed three times the FTJ allocation. Expenditure from the EU budget will be supplemented by national co-financing, in accordance with cohesion policy rules.

These funds will help to alleviate the socio-economic costs generated by the climate transition, by supporting the economic diversification and conversion of the territories concerned. This will include support for productive investment in small and medium-sized enterprises, new business start-ups, research and innovation, environmental remediation, clean energy, professional development and retraining programs, job search assistance and active inclusion of jobseekers, as well as the transformation of existing carbon-intensive facilities where these investments result in significant emissions reductions and job protection. This initiative is expected to mobilize investments worth close to 30 billion euros.