South-East Europe

FINAL COUNTDOWN TO NEW FUNDING

South East Europe programme winding up

It has been 7 great years of cooperation and we would like to thank all project partners for the well-done job! We are proud of individial partnership work (and project results speak for themselves), as well as of the joint effort to build synergies across partnerships.

SEE Outputs Library is the treasury that will safekeep project deliverables for the next few years. A collection of project stories in a nutshell is available on our SEE YouTube channel. We hope you will continue to make use of this knowledge with the support of the new cooperation schemes in the area.

One door closes and another three open - here is what the future holds:

Adrion logo

Adriatic-Ionian Transnational Programme

The Adriatic-Ionian Cooperation Programme (ADRION) is a new European transnational cooperation programme for the 2014-2020 period. The Programme area covers four EU Member States (part of Italy, Slovenia, Greece and Croatia) and four IPA II beneficiary countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia). Altogether this makes an area of more than 70 million inhabitants.

The overall objective of the Programme is to act as a policy driver and governance innovator fostering the integration of EU Member and non-Member states, utilising the rich natural, cultural and human resources surrounding the Adriatic and Ionian seas and enhancing economic, social and territorial cohesion in the programme area.

In line with the cohesion policy regulations and taking into account the national priorities of the partner countries, the ADRION Programme (2014-2020) is built around four thematic priority axes:

1) Innovative and smart region
Specific objective: to support the development of a regional innovation system for the Adriatic-Ionian area;

2) Sustainable region

Specific objective 2.1: promote the sustainable valorisation and preservation of natural and cultural assets as growth assets in the Adriatic-Ionian area;

Specific objective 2.2: enhance the capacity in transnationally tacking environmental vulnerability, fragmentation and the safeguarding of ecosystem services in the Adriatic-Ionian area;

3) Connected region

Specific objective: enhance capacity for integrated transport and mobility services and multimodality in the Adriatic-Ionian area;

4) Supporting the governance of EU Strategy for the Aadriatic-Ionian Region

Specific objective: Facilitate the coordination and implementation of the EUSAIR by enhancing institutional capacity of public administrations and key stakeholders and by assisting the progress of implementation of joint priorities.

The programme will invest EUR 83,5 million from the ERDF and EUR 15,7 million from IPA II for transnational projects in the Adriatic-Ionian area.

BM logo Balkan-Mediterranean Transnational Programme

The Balkan-Mediterranean programme proves that small is beautiful. Just 5 European countries are involved in this programme: Bulgaria, Greece, Cyprus, Albania and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. They joint goal is to promote integrated territorial development and cooperation for a more competitive and sustainable Balkan-Mediterranean area by building on shared territorial assets.

The programme will invest EUR 28,3 million from the ERDF and EUR 5,1 million from IPA II for transnational projects falling within the scope of two thematic priority axes:

1) Entrepreneurship and innovation

Specific objective 1.1: Promote entrepreneurship and business creation on the basis on new ideas, innovation and new types of business models;

Specific objective 1.2: Facilitate innovation in business models and allow a maximum number of SMEs to innovate and adjust their business models to the changing socioeconomic and policy/regulatory circumstances;

Specific objective 1.3: Support entrepreneurial learning and knowledge transfer for more competitive SMEs.

2) Environment

Specific objective 2.1: Maintain biodiversity and natural ecosystems by strengthening networking and management of protected areas, including Natura 2000;

Specific objective 2.2: Promote cooperation and networking aiming to introduce innovative technologies for efficient management of the waste sector, the soil and the water sector;

Specific objective 2.3: Develop skills for better environmental management and increase governance capacities.

Projects supported by the Balkan-Mediterranean programme will be encouraged to also consider cross-cutting issues like inclusive growth and integrated territorial development.

Danube logo Danube Transnational Programme

With a budget of more than EUR 220 million and involving 14 countries, DANUBE is the largest transnational programme for 2014-2020. Institutions from 8 EU Member States (Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany - only Baden-Württemberg and Bayern-, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia) and 5 non-EU countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, part of Ukraine) will be eligible to form transnational partnerships in line with the following thematic priorities:

1) Innovative and socially responsible Danube region

Specific objective 1.1: Improve framework conditions for innovation
Specific objective 1.2: Increase competences for business and social innovation

2) Environment and culture responsible Danube region

Specific objective 2.1: Foster sustainable use of natural and cultural heritage and resources
Specific objective 2.2: Foster the restoration and management of ecological corridors
Specific objective 2.3: Strengthen transnational water management and flood risk prevention
Specific objective 2.4: Improve preparedness for disaster risk management

3) Better connected and energy responsible Danube region

Specific objective 3.1: Support environmentally-friendly and safe transport systems and balanced accessibility of urban and rural areas
Specific objective 3.2: Improve energy security and energy efficiency

4) Well-governed Danube region

Specific objective 4.1: Improve institutional capacities to tackle major societal challenges

Specific objective 4.2: Support to the governance and implementation of the EUSDR

In order to achieve a higher degree of territorial integration of the very heterogeneous Danube region, Danube Transnational Programme will act as a policy driver to tackle common challenges and needs in specific fields where transnational cooperation is expected to deliver tangible results. To achieve those results, complementarities with the broader EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR) will be sought.

In total EUR 202,3 million from the ERDF and EUR 19,8 million from IPA II will be invested in transnational actions in the region until 2020.

UPDATES

ADRION

On 19 December 2014 the ADRION Programme was successfully submitted to the European Commission. Observations and the revised version will be promptly sent to the EC.

In February 2015 the programme Managing Authority (Region of Emilia-Romagna) launched recruitment for the Joint Secretariat Coordinator. The results of the recruitment process will be known very soon.
The latest Task Force meeting took place on 28 May 2015 in Rome.

The first call for proposals is planned for autumn 2015. The application process will most likely be based on the HIT application package and eMS (electronic monitoring system) both developed recently by INTERACT.

The programme will use the following domain: www.interregadrion.eu, which at present redirects automatically to SEE website and the Adriatic-Ionian subsection.
Email contact: info@interregadrion.eu

For more details on programme documents (read here).

Balkan-Mediterranean

This was the first successor programme to be submitted for approval to the European Commission already on 22 September 2014. At present communication is exchanged between the Greek Managing Authority and the EC on fine-tuning the cooperation framework. No major changes in the programme text is expected, so applicants are invited to already get to know the specific actions eligible for funding (see documents link below).

Partner countries will start the information campaign on the first call for proposals in mid June 2015, so stay put. Applicants will receive support for the preparation of new project proposals, so that once the official nod from the EC is given, they would be ready to submit their applications.

On 22 and 23 June in Thessaloniki, the Greek Managing Authoroty is holding an event inaugurating the new 2014-2020 funding period in EU territorial cooperation. The event will present all cooperation programmes managed by Greece including the Balkan-Mediterranean programme. This will be a good opportunity for applicants to get first-hand information about the first call for proposals and start building transnational partnerships. Join in by registering here!

For more details on programme documents (read here).

DANUBE

The Danube Transnational Cooperation Programme was submitted to the European Commission on 6 March 2015. This marked the beginning of a process of fine-tuning of the cooperation framework and preparation of the first call for proposals.

The official launch of the programme is planned for 23 and 24 September 2015 in Budapest. It is expected that the kick-off event will gather more than 500 stakeholders, decision-makers, field experts and potential applicants from the eligible area. The main agenda points will cover the conditions of the first call for proposals, synergies with the EUSDR, as well as plenty of networking and partner search opportunities. The registration for the event is expected to open in the summer.

Those planning a project in the Danube area can already start looking for partners or proposing project ideas with the help of the provisional partner search tool made available through the SEE website.

For more details on programme documents (read here).

The SEE website will continue providing you with updates on the new programmes until the end of 2015. For weekly news and reviews stay tuned to the SEE LinkedIn page.

Final countdown to new funding