The European Parliament’s regional affairs committee voted on 6 July to adopt a European Commission proposal to set up €40bn Just Transition Fund, which aims to support the bloc’s 108 coal-producing regions in their transition to a low-carbon economy.

The proposed fund aims to support regions with polluting industries to retrain workers and help them find new low-carbon jobs, but does not include nuclear energy.

The aim of the fund is to reduce the socio-economic costs for those communities that are less equipped to meet the challenges of Europe’s planned transition to a climate-neutral economy by 2050. It will focus, in particular, on regions and territories which need to phase out production and use of coal, lignite, peat and oil shale, or transform carbon-intensive industries.

The European Commission said in its proposal, published in January, that the fund would not support the decommissioning or the construction of nuclear power stations.