Brussels, 01/06/2015 - On Thursday 28 May, the Commissioner for Regional Policy, Corina Cretu, agreed to finance the 2014-2020 cross-border cooperation programme between France and Italy, to the tune of €198 million out of an estimated €233 million.
This programme involves the French regions of Rhône-Alpes, Alpes Côte d'Azur and their Italian counterparts in Piedmont, the Aosta Valley and Liguria and seeks to implement the EUROPE 2020 Strategy. In this perspective, the first part of the programme will involve stepping up cooperation in the technology transfer field between universities, research centres and businesses in the applied sciences domain, as well as support for sustainable transport. The second part of the programme will involve protecting natural and cultural heritage and improving cooperation in risk management. Finally, the third part will focus on themes involving the social inclusion of workers.
The programme will therefore include: - setting up 20 new cross-border cooperation projects for innovation; - ensuring the involvement of 95 public institutions in devising a strategy for combating climate change; - ensuring the commitment of 226 local authorities in conservation and regional regeneration projects; - 65 action plans to ensure better biodiversity management; - developing 400 training and professional career development courses at a cross-border level and developing 21 sustainable transport strategies.
On this occasion, the Commissioner (Romania) pointed out: “Our Interreg projects illustrate the tangible added EU value on the ground. In this cross-border region, cooperation in innovation and research should progress substantially in a labour market that has remained fragmented. With this programme, France and Italy will be able to meet these challenges by pooling their resources and succeeding together”.
The Interreg programmes have a budget of €6.6 billion and account for around 60 programmes within the 2014-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework. (Pascal Hansens)