14/03/23 (Agence Europe) – The European Commission is pleased that despite delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, 84 out of the 86 Interreg programmes planned were adopted in 2022. For the 2021–2027 period, Interreg represents around 3% of the total cohesion policy budget, that being almost €10 billion including funds from outside the EU. With national co-financing, the total funding is expected to amount to €12.8 billion. The European Commission is also pleased with the success of the new “cooperation governance” objective, which notably enables better systematic management of cross-border services. Finally, it notes that the adopted programmes intend to dedicate more than one-third of their allocation to ‘Green Deal’ priorities. Despite these results, MEPs were concerned about the challenges of implementing Interreg (see EUROPE 13131/10). (HS)