The European Commission adopted a report today highlighting the contribution of Cohesion Policy in the European Economic Recovery Plan and its support for the real economy. The report details measures to accelerate ‘smart’ investment at national and regional level by simplifying access to grants, facilitating support to people hit by the crisis and increasing the availability of finance for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). (more…)
Danuta Hübner, European Commissioner for Regional Policy, will be in Warsaw on Monday 15 December to launch the infrastructure and environment operational programme for Poland, financed by the European Union Cohesion Policy. The programme, which is the biggest ever of its kind, amounts to an investment of nearly €28 billion. Such a concentration of resources is expected to have a considerable impact not only on Poland but also on Europe as a whole. (more…)
Polish non-profit organisations can now apply for grants to implement partnership projects with entities in the EEA EFTA states, Baltic Sea countries, and countries neighbouring Poland to the east.
The overarching aim of the €1.3 million fund is to stimulate the capacity for cross-border cooperation of public Polish entities on regional and local levels. Project proposals can be submitted to fund manager The East European Democratic Centre until 10 February 2009. (more…)
Claus Schultze, alias i-blogger, the Director of ERRIN, the European Regions Research and Innovation Network, writes in a recent blog post:
This week, finally, and for the first time in EU history, has the EU taken the bold step (according to EU standards) to freeze Structural Funds payments to a country on grounds of rampant corruption. The laggard identified, named and shamed was Bulgaria. (more…)
Delivering a keynote speech at the 9th Conference of Presidents of Regions with Legislative Powers (REGLEG) in Brussels, Committee of the Regions (CoR) President Luc Van den Brande called for a new global vision for Europe. For the post-Lisbon Strategy era, Europe would need a new Policy Master Plan. Van den Brande invited the 73 REGLEG Presidents to work hard for a new system of governance in Europe, built on partnership between local, regional, national and the European levels. (more…)
The National Development Agency, the Ministry of Construction and Regional Development of the Slovak Republic and the Joint Technical Secretariat of the Programme organised a kick-off conference in Budapest on 27 November 2008 to mark the launch the Hungary-Slovakia Cross-Border Cooperation Programme.
The Hungary-Slovakia Cross-Border Cooperation Programme – as a continuation of the INTERREG Programme announced earlier and running during the 2007-2013-period – grants European Union funding for cooperation to be launched in the above-listed areas. Győr-Moson-Sopron County, Komárom-Esztergom County, Nógrád County, Heves County, Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County, Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County and Pest County, as well as Budapest will be participating in the Programme on the Hungarian side; whilst the Slovak districts of Bratislava, Trnava, Nitra, Banska Bystrica and Kosice will be participating in the Programme on the Slovak side. Applications may, among others, be submitted in the following areas within the framework of the Programme: cross-border business cooperation; R+D and innovation cooperation; joint tourism projects; healthcare and risk prevention; development of partnership, programme and project management capacities; cross-border environmental and nature protection projects; small-scale transport infrastructure developments, as well as IT developments. (more…)
At its meeting on 21 November in Paris, the URBACT Monitoring Committee congratulated the important number of partners in URBACT projects: 253 partners, equally divided between the competitiveness and convergence zones (cities from the 12 new member States represent 29% of the total). 200 Managing Authorities of the Operational Programmes, regional and national managers of European funding are associated with the URBACT projects. (more…)
Standart News reports:
Bulgaria has already received advance payments from the EU in the size of 367.9 million euro. The funds have been allotted under the operative programs financed by the EU cohesion and the structural funds, Finance Minister Plamen Oresharski said during a sitting of the Committee for Monitoring of Bulgaria’s National Strategic Reference Framework. (more…)
The European Commission has given its approval to 63 university co-operation and 13 other high quality projects under the new phase of the Tempus programme, selected from 530 applications. All 28 Tempus partner countries are involved, with a total budget of € 60 million. 600 universities from the partner countries and 300 from the EU will participate in these projects.
The Tempus programme supports the modernisation of higher education and creates an area of co-operation in countries outside the EU. Established in 1990 after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the scheme now covers 28 countries in the Western Balkans, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, North Africa and the Middle East. (more…)
The European Commission adopted the Black Sea Basin Joint Operational Programme 2007-2013 through the EC Decision C (2008) 7406 from 27 November 2008. There are 10 participating countries in the Black Sea JOP, i.e. Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Moldova, Russian Federation, Turkey, Ukraine, Romania, and Greece. The official launch of the programme, as well as the launch of the first call for proposal will take place at the beginning of 2009.
The Black Sea Basin Joint Operational Programme 2007-2013 is financed by the European Union under the European Neighbourhood & Partnership Instrument (ENPI). The participation of Turkey, as candidate country at the EU is financed by the IPA (Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance). (more…)
