66 million euros for cross-border cooperation between Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, and Ukraine
The European Commission adopted the document for the implementation of the cross-border cooperation between Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, and Ukraine. With a 66 million euros of fund, the four countries will work together on topics such as health, environment, and administrative capacity for a better development of the border areas.
What is the Interreg NEXT
The Interreg NEXT is a key instrument of the European Union which supports the cooperation between the European Union and its neighbouring regions, to address different regional needs regarding a good cooperation governance and an economic and social development of the border areas, through joint actions in the fields of environment protections, public health services, safety and security measures, connectivity, research, education, transport, energy, support to SMEs and entrepreneurship.
For the period 2021-2027, the cooperation will be governed by the EU Cohesion policy and the financed programmes will have an allocation of 1.1 billion euros from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the Neighbourhood, Development, and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI) and the Instrument for Pre-Accession (IPA).
Since the war in Ukraine started, the preparation of the 2021-2027 programmes involving Russia and Belarus has been suspended. The European Commission is exploring now new ways on how to use the budget foreseen for these programmes, for helping Ukraine and its people, including the refugees. For example, for the 2021-2027 period, almost €600 million will be granted to five Interreg programmes, to support cross-border and transnational cooperation activities between Member States and Ukraine.
66 million euros for cross-border cooperation between Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, and Ukraine
The European Commission has recently approved the document for the implementation of the Hungary-Slovakia-Romania-Ukraine Interreg NEXT Programme (HUSKROUA), which will allow, through 66 million euros from the NDICI and from the ERDF, a better cooperation between Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, and Ukraine, which will work together for different objectives, in particular for equal access to health care and for more resilience of their health systems.
The programme will be focused on three priorities (a resilient and green border region, a healthy and attractive border region, and a cooperation border region) and will support projects on different objectives, such as:
- promoting sustainable solutions for climate change adaptation and disaster risk prevention
- enhancing biodiversity and reducing all forms of pollution
- ensuring equal access to health care
- enhancing the role of culture and sustainable tourism in economic development, social inclusion, and social innovation
- protect the nature and promote green infrastructures
- enhancing cooperation between citizens, civil society actors and institution
All countries participating in the programme are represented in a joint structure called Monitoring Committee, which monitors the programme implementation and the achievement of the programme goals. In this case, the Monitoring Committee was entrusted to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary, which will decide on the opening of the first call for proposals, which is foreseen at the first quarter of year 2023.
Thanks to the call for proposals, large-scale infrastructure projects for the Interreg NEXT programme will be selected and will be considered as operations of strategic importance. After the launching of the call and a period of evaluation and contracting between the European Commission and the involved countries, a provisional 36 months of implementation period for the projects is foreseen.
"Under Cohesion Policy, Interreg will help Ukraine and bordering Member States to face common challenges and grasp common opportunities. Ukraine is part of the European family, and this is yet again another tangible sign of collaboration in a common path forward", said Elisa Ferreira, Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms.