The goal of the EXCITE project is to apply the well-established energy management scheme of the European Energy Award (eea) in Central and Eastern European municipalities, enabling them to become trusted partners to the investors and engaging local communities for deliberate climate action. This, on its end, will help attract new innovative businesses to the involved cities and municipalities and will intensify the local economies, supporting them in the surge for better living standard and maintaining young and vibrant communities proactively contributing to the energy transition. Through applying the methodology the eea methodology, the project will enhance the implementation of energy efficiency measures at local level through securing the necessary technical, economic and social conditions for attracting of private investors, promoting public entrepreneurship and successful leveraging of the scarce public resources. As achievement this goal requires broad public support, the project will invest significant efforts in developing interface capacities for engagement with the civil society and incentivize local communities to proactively use the available opportunities, becoming a driving force in the European energy transition. The actions will also support the implementation of the Covenant of Mayors, enabling more municipalities to join the initiative and serving as major data input and result monitoring tool for the actual implementation of the Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans (SECAPs) of the involved municipalities. Last but not least, the embracing of the eea methodology will become the basis of an action-oriented peer learning platform, transferring experience and know-how from already well-developed Austrian, Swiss and French municipalities but also enabling peer to peer learning between cities in Eastern Europe, gradually shifting to more sustainable practices in their economic and social development.