The Midlands Northwest representative was speaking after meeting with GEAI Chief Executive Aedin McLoughlin and volunteers at their offices in Ballinaglera, alongside his Sinn Féin colleague Cllr Brendan Barry.
MEP MacManus said: "GEAI work on issues such as climate, renewable energy and anti-fracking campaigning. They run community energy dialogues, publish studies, and campaign against new fossil fuel extraction. They do a lot of very important work in identifying solutions to issues affecting local communities in this area.
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"I was also glad to get the opportunity to meet with some of the young volunteers at GEAI, who come from a number of different European countries. They are here as part of Erasmus+, which is an EU funded programme that supports education and training across Europe. They all bring significant expertise to the group, and it is a very positive example of how EU funding can support the work of local organisations.
"The volunteers are currently carrying out a survey of the sustainable energy communities in Leitrim to look at the barriers to community-owned renewable energy. There are significant issues with access to the grid which have prevented community energy projects from going ahead across the country, so this is important work which can help to identify how these problems can be overcome."
