ENI CBC in motion
Many developments have taken place during the month of March in the ENI CBC community. Some are visible, others less. But they are all equally needed for the global progress of ENI CBC programmes towards their successful implementation.
What a response so far!
Our previous bulletin provided an overview of the first ENI CBC calls for proposals launched, and you are certainly aware about their success in terms of participation.
Since then, our Finnish colleagues have been pretty active. Karelia has closed the first call on micro-projects, receiving a total of 21 applications within the deadline. It is worth highlighting that 11 of the lead partners did not participate in the previous period, showing the capacity of the programme to call new actors into the cooperation arena. On its side, Southeast Finland-Russia has received 29 proposals, requesting a total of over 23 Mio€.
And we are all looking forward to the first statistics about Estonia-Russia and Kolarctic, whose calls have only recently closed!
The programmes who have launched their calls in 2016 are keeping themselves busy with the assessment process. In particular, Poland-Belarus-Ukraine has concluded the assessment of concept notes for two thematic objectives (Heritage and Security). In view of the high average quality, 334 proposals have been invited to the next stage! Assessment for the other two thematic objectives (Accessibility and Borders) is still on-going.
While waiting for the calls that will be launched this spring, CBC continues to demonstrate its attractiveness for actors all along the EU’s external borders.
For more information on all the ENI CBC call for proposals, see the link here.
Programmes and countries are also on the move!
Following the signature of the Financing Agreements with Belarus, the Republic of Moldova, Russia, Tunisia and Ukraine in December 2016, negotiations between the European Commission (DG NEAR) and the remaining CBC Partner Countries continue steadily and Jordan has now joined the list of countries having signed the Agreement.
In order to address the ever-growing needs, programmes are also securing the availability of skilled staff, and the brand new Joint Technical Secretariat of Poland-Russia, located in Olsztyn, is now in place. The selection of the staff for the Eastern Antenna of the Mediterranean Sea Basin, located in Aqaba, has been successfully concluded and the procedure for setting up the Joint Technical Secretariat of Italy-Tunisia is in its final stages.
The programmes adopted by the end of 2016 are gradually catching up and the first Joint Monitoring Committee of Poland-Russia took place in Yantarny (Russia) on 23 March. Progress has also been made on the involvement of new institutional actors, and a meeting of the Control Contact Points of Poland-Belarus-Ukraine was held in Kiev on 2 March. Partner Countries are working hard to set the right structures and procedures, and the Tunisian National Authority hosted a technical session in Tunis on 21-22 March in order to discuss the challenges of the new governance framework.
Solid foundations are being laid on which the approved projects can rely!
For further news on specific issues, please the relevant section of the website.