Brussels, 06/11/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has defined guidelines for implementation of the third strand of the Interreg initiative covering the period 2000-2006. The strand "C", with a budget of EUR 295 million, mainly aims to promote the sharing of experience on matters relating to cooperation between European regions. Priorities adopted on Monday cover the exchange of experience between local authorities of the regions which: i) benefit from Objective 1 (regions lagging behind in development) and Objective 2 (regions undergoing conversion); ii) benefit from the Interreg initiative (cooperation between European regions); iii) have an experience in interregional cooperation in the fields of information technology, regional identity or sustainable development. The Interreg C initiative will also allow support to be given to cooperation projects on the "quality of life in urban areas".
The projects will be financed by the Community up to 75% when these are presented by the Objective 1 regions, and at 50% for the others. Priority will be given to the projects involving insular or very remote regions, as well as the regions of applicant countries.
The communication will be definitively adopted early next year, after the opinion of the Member States, the Committee of the Regions and of the Economic and Social Committee.