Brussels, 07/01/2016 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has given its green light to allocating an envelope of over €1 billion to a series of cross-border projects between EU member state regions and third country regions bordering or close to the EU.
This decision involves 27 countries in total, including regions in Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, Russia, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Tunisia. A sum of €543 million will come from the European Neighbourhood Instrument - ENI (the financial arm of the European Neighbourhood Policy - ENP), and €509 million from the European Regional Development Fund - ERDF (which aims to strengthen economic and social cohesion within the EU).
European Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn said that this financing aims primarily at stabilising the regions on the EU's external borders and at reducing the gap in living standards on either side of the border.
For each programme, the participating countries have been invited to set a maximum of four priorities from among the development of SMEs, culture, the environment and climate change, the fight against poverty, education and research, energy, accessibility and border management.
The Commission says that the financing agreements are expected to be finalised by the end of the year, whilst the calls for proposals for obtaining the subsidies will be launched over the course of the year, or in early 2017 at the latest. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)