The European Commission adopted today the new interregional cooperation programme ("Interact") between all EU Member States with the participation of Norway and Switzerland, worth around €40 million from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The programme is the knowledge hub for exchanging information, best practices and joint initiatives among the cooperation programmes funded under the ERDF.
Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Crețu said: "European regions are increasingly aware that cooperation is one good way of finding appropriate replies to the challenges that they have to face jointly, whether they are economic, environmental or social. By improving the results delivered under the cooperation programmes or by encouraging new forms of cooperation like the macro-regional strategies, the Interact programme will contribute to improving the efficiency of public policies."
The programme will mainly finance projects and actions which aim to improve the management and control capacity of European Territorial Cooperation programmes, as well as their capacity in capturing and communicating the programme results. The programme will also improve management capacity in implementing innovative cooperation approaches such as the European Groupings of Territorial Cooperation or the macro-regional strategies between partners coming from different countries and administrations in Europe.
These actions and projects (co-financed by ERDF up to 85%) will be carried out by the Interact Secretariat in Bratislava (SK) and four Information offices in Turku (FI), Valencia (ES), Vienna (AT) and Viborg (DK).
Background
The programme "Interact" covers the territory of all 28 EU countries as well as Norway and Switzerland. It is managed by the self-governing Region of Bratislava in Slovakia. The programme has one single priority: to deliver services, with an ERDF amount of €36.6 million. An additional €2.7 million will be provided for technical assistance. The EU funding of €39.4 million will be complemented by €7 million co-financing from national public sources. The total volume of the programme is more than €46 million.The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) aims to strengthen economic and social cohesion in the European Union by reducing imbalances between its regions. The ERDF will invest more than 199 billion euro in the regions of Europe throughout 2014-2020.
