ASSIST is a 38 month European ‘market activation - policy orientation’ project to tackle fuel poverty and support vulnerable consumers. It answers the call requirements to actively engage consumers in the energy market and positively change behaviour in relation to energy consumption and to influence design of policy at all levels to tackle fuel poverty issues. Based on the conclusion of the “Energy Citizens’ Forum”, it combines activities that address both energy and social issues as fuel poverty is not only an energy issue nor can it be tackled in isolation of the bigger issue of poverty, it will: Broaden understanding on European fuel poverty incidence and how energy support services are effectively tackling the issue, identify best practice and needs but also provide a baseline against which the activity can be compared to demonstrate its effectiveness and to inform work towards policy orientation. Create an European network and build this by ensuring quality knowledge and skills of the Vulnerable Consumer Energy Advisors (VCEA) with a supportive infrastructure for professional development and experiencing sharing. The VCEA will be in positions of direct contact with the target group in order to help mainstream energy services and, increase access and uptake for the fuel poor. The creation of the VCEA network will also encompass the recruitment of persons with direct experience of vulnerability/fuel poverty, training them to increase their employability skills but, moreover, to maximise on the peer to peer benefits that they can offer in provision of advice . With specialist VCEA and advisory strategic steering committees each nation will undertake target actions to address the specific issue. In this way the action utilises the powerful effect of target group ownership of action + bespoke solutions designed in collaboration with the target groups/end users to deliver important lessons learned for dissemination and policy influence.

Sustainable Public Real Estate Management (SPREM) is almost non-existent in Flanders (BE). SPREM can be defined as the management – i.e. acquisition, holding, using and disposing - of real estate assets in such a way that it realises ambitious sustainability goals, minimises the total costs of ownership and life cycle costs and maximises the benefits of real estate for the community. The absence of SPREM is a major barrier for large scale sustainable energy investments in public buildings in the short, medium and long term in Flanders. This barrier has consistently been identified by SURE2050 consortium partners supporting public clients with energy efficiency services as well as by municipalities themselves, including the more than 95 municipalities that indicated their strong interest in SURE2050 via a Letter of Support. SURE2050 will remove this barrier by providing SPREM-training, SPREM tools and coaching to municipalities and to regional governmental organisations in Flanders. SPREM will generate critical information for strategic decision making, such as reliable quantitative and qualitative data on buildings, energy renovation potential and the use of resources. Thanks to the long-term SPREM vision, shorter term energy efficiency investments can be made without causing any lock-in effect for the future. A broad consortium of public and private partners has been created to maximise the involvement of these public organisations in the programme and to support them with the implementation of SPREM in their organisation, as well as with the concrete sustainable investment projects with a minimum value of 20 million EUR. As the absence of SPREM is not limited to public organisations in Flanders, the SURE2050 proposed project will also have a high added value for most public entities in Europe. SURE2050 will therefore realise a high replication potential at the European level via organisations such as the Covenant of Mayors office.