Transfer to Ukraine of funds intended for Russia and Belarus within the Interreg NEXT 20212-2027 framework – EU Commission answer

Brussels, 5 August 2022

See question(s) : E-002248/2022

EN
E-002248/2022
Answer given by Ms Ferreira
on behalf of the European Commission
(5.8.2022)
On 3 June 2022 the Commission has proposed to transfer EUR 26.2 million, originally planned for 2021-2027 Interreg NEXT programmes with Russia and Belarus, to the Interreg NEXT programmes with Ukraine and Moldova. This transfer will strengthen the cooperation in border regions between Hungary/Slovakia/Romania/Ukraine¹, Poland/Ukraine², Romania/Moldova³, and Romania/Ukraine⁴ and will boost the transnational cooperation in the Danube⁵ and Black Sea Basin⁶ regions.

Interreg NEXT programmes 2021-2027 will support cohesion policy objectives for a greener and more social Europe, notably through activities supporting access to education and health services, tourism and culture. They can be used to support refugee integration, namely, by financing social inclusion schemes, job training programmes and institutional capacity building of public authorities. These programmes will also support Interreg specific objectives for good governance and a more secure Europe.

Once these programmes are adopted, they will be implemented under shared management through open calls for proposals. The Commission has an advisory role in the implementation process but does not have voting rights in the selection of projects, which is ensured by the participating EU Member States and partner countries. Poland, Hungary and Romania have recently submitted the Interreg NEXT programmes with Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova to the Commission. Its priority is to have them adopted in the coming months as soon as possible before the end of 2022.

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1 Hungary/Slovakia/Romania/Ukraine https://huskroua-cbc.eu/
2 Poland/Ukraine https://www.pbu2020.eu/en/
3 Romania/Moldova https://ro-md.net/en
4 Romania/Ukraine https://ro-ua.net/en/
5 Danube region https://www.interreg-danube.eu/
6 Black Sea Basin region https://blacksea-cbc.net/

Source: Answer to a written question – Transfer to Ukraine of funds intended for Russia and Belarus within the framework of the Interreg NEXT 2021-2027 programmes – E-002248/2022(ASW)