Brussels, 02/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - The environment will be at the very heart of Interreg-A programme for 2014-2020 between Slovakia and Hungary, which was adopted by the European Commission on Thursday 1 October. It aims, inter alia, to promote green cross-border mobility and sustainable tourism.
The programme is worth €172 million, with €146 million coming from the European rural development fund (ERDF). It places great emphasis on preserving and promoting the countries' common natural and cultural heritage, including in the fields of joint water management and natural risk prevention.
The other main plank of the programme is mobility, by improving access to the trans-European transport network (TEN-T) and reducing the environmental impact of public transport.
The programme will do much to develop the border jobs markets, seeking to improve workers' mobility and promote the local economies.
It aims to attract 800,000 more visitors to the region over the period of the programme, to have 60,000 more passengers taking cross-border public transport, and to increase in the employment rate in the border regions from 63.2% to 65.2%.
The programme covers 13 regions and districts. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)