Today climate change causes serious problems to the societies worldwide and Europe starts to feel its consequences. At the same time European community is facing economical problems. One of the main producers of greenhouse gases is the non sustainable energy production and use. Therefore there is an urgent need to reduce energy use in most cost effective way.PLEEC will gather cities with innovative planning and ambitious energy saving goals. It will identify technology, citizens’ behaviors and structure driven efficiency potentials within urban planning and key city aspects. PLEEC will assess the status of energy efficiency and energy flows in the participating European middle size cities. It will improve understanding of basic conditions for energy efficiency in the cities through joint activities between city planners and researchers on technology, citizens’ behavior and structures. By finding the optimal mix of all energy efficiency measures the model for strategic sustainable planning will be created together with the action plans for implementation and management. The model and the action plans will address key aspects relevant for the whole city. They will be supported by the public authorities on the highest political levels. Analysis of time line, the costs and pay-back periods will be done based on different regulatory and market conditions of the participating cities. The model will guide the cities to find the most cost effective implementation of the EU SET-Plan goals to reduce energy use in EU by 20% till 2020.