EU funding until 2027

At its meeting on 14 September 2022, the City Council passed resolution B-173/2022 on the City of Chemnitz's area-based integrated action plan (GIHK) for the funding of ERDF and ESF PLUS areas until 2027. The action plan is the basis for applying for EU funding from the Sächsische Aufbaubank (SAB).

The City of Chemnitz has submitted funding applications for the following 5 new areas:

• ERDF area Zwickauer Straße
• ERDF area Altchemnitz
• ERDF area Chemnitz city centre
• ESF area Chemnitz centre
• ESF area Chemnitz South 2.0.

The neighbourhoods planned for funding are disadvantaged in various ways compared to the city as a whole, e.g. due to the proportion of recipients of social benefits, a high vacancy rate of commercial space and brownfield sites, a poorer environmental situation, a lack of infrastructure or a particular need for support for small-scale local businesses and social services. The planned measures are intended to help compensate for these deficits with an integrated approach and give the people living and working there more opportunities to participate.

All citizens in Chemnitz had various opportunities to participate in the run-up to the project. A total of 110 project ideas were submitted for the ERDF and ESF. The evaluation of the proposals and the analysis of existing urban planning and decisions led to the present area-based integrated action plan with specific areas and measures to be funded.

To overcome structural deficits, the Saxon State Ministry for Regional Development wants to support Saxon cities with the help of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) with a further funding period from 2021 to 2027. The proven approaches and principles of the 2014 - 2020 funding period are to be continued. On 3 February 2023, the funding guideline "Sustainable integrated urban development 2021 - 2027" was published in the Saxon Official Gazette No. 5/2023.

The aim is to support Saxon cities with a population of at least 5,000 in the development of disadvantaged urban neighbourhoods as part of regional funding in order to effectively tackle the very different local problems.

The funding guideline focuses on the following priorities and fields of action:

• Investment projects that serve to reduce CO2 emissions
• Investment projects to improve urban ecology
• Investment and non-investment projects that serve the economic and social revitalisation of the supported cities and urban districts and improve their quality of life for residents

By 31 March 2023, the City of Chemnitz had submitted three area applications to the Saxon State Ministry for Regional Development. The framework decisions are expected from September 2023. The first individual measures can then be applied for and started ahead of schedule.

The city of Chemnitz has applied for funding of up to €15 million (ERDF share incl. state reinforcement funds) to implement the approx. 30 individual measures. The municipality will contribute 10-30% of the funding itself.

The funding from ESF Plus offers the City of Chemnitz the opportunity to initiate social change in the selected areas to stabilise and improve the living conditions of the district residents.

On the basis of the area-related integrated action plan adopted by the city council, the two funding areas "ESF-Chemnitz Mitte" and "ESF-Chemnitz Süd 2.0" are to be actively promoted from autumn 2023. To this end, up to EUR 6.9 million in ESF Plus funding has been applied for for a total of 37 additional, low-threshold and informal neighbourhood projects and accompanying measures. ESF PLUS funding is particularly aimed at the development opportunities and employability of socially and labour market disadvantaged people. A wide range of offers and actors are to stabilise the areas socially and strengthen cohesion in the community. The projects are bundled in the following fields of action:

• Informal child and youth education
• Social integration
• Accompanying measures (programme support and public relations work).

The spatial focus is on the inner-city areas of the city centre, Brühl, Reitbahnviertel and Sonnenberg as well as the large suburban housing estate in the south of Chemnitz, the former "Heckert area". In line with the integrated action approach, social projects can in some cases be combined with construction interventions from the urban development programme or the ERDF fund.