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European Commission approves CENTRAL EUROPE as the first transnational Interreg programme

More than 146 million people living in the cities and regions of central Europe will benefit from an investment approved on 16 December 2014 by EU Commissioner for Regional Policy, Corina Creţu. The Interreg CENTRAL EUROPE Programme will invest 246 million Euro for transnational cooperation among central European cities and regions until 2020. The EU investments will support public and private organisations working beyond borders. The key focus will be to strengthen regional competitiveness, boost energy efficiency and the low carbon economy as well as encouraging greener transport and better management of cultural heritage and natural resources. Nine central European countries are involved: Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Italy Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Croatia, which as the newest member of the EU joins the programme this year.

Corina Creţu, Commissioner for Regional Policy said: “This Interreg programme is truly about making Europe a better place to live and work. Our transnational investments approved today are the EU in action: we are helping people who live in central Europe to face common challenges together and to share their potential, whether it is about natural resources, cultural heritage or better connections to key transport routes. Building on the experience of 124 cooperation projects supported between 2007 and 2014, Interreg CENTRAL EUROPE will continue to be an essential tool to meet the needs of 76 cities and regions in these nine countries."

231 million of the 246 million Euro investments from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) will directly support transnational cooperation projects. They build capacities and skills, by exchanging good practices and testing new, innovative approaches through small-scale investments. The first call for project proposals for Interreg CENTRAL EUROPE is expected to open in February 2015.

Background:

Interreg CENTRAL EUROPE is a European Union cohesion policy programme, managed by the City of Vienna. Since 2007 the programme has encouraged transnational cooperation among cities and regions of eight central European countries: Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany (Baden-Württemberg, Bayern, Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Sachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt, Thüringen), Hungary, Italy (Emilia-Romagna, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Liguria, Lombardia, Piemonte, Provincia Autonoma Bolzano, Provincia Autonoma Trento, Valle d’Aosta, and Veneto), Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia. Croatia now joins the programme as the ninth Member State.

With only 0.07 percent of the total EU cohesion policy budget of more than 350 billion euro, transnational cooperation aims at building transnational knowledge, creating networks, realising pilot actions and preparing large-scale investments, based on local project ideas that reflect common challenges and shared needs across the programme area.

The main investment priorities of the new Interreg CENTRAL EUROPE Programme were agreed by the participating Member States following detailed discussions with relevant partners and stakeholders throughout the past three years. They are:

• Cooperating on innovation to make central Europe more competitive: projects will aim at more effective investment in research, innovation and education and will also address regional disparities in knowledge and education.
• Cooperating on low-carbon strategies in central Europe: projects to increase the use of renewable energies and improving energy efficiency while exploiting opportunity for new jobs in the low-carbon sector.
• Cooperating on natural and cultural resources for sustainable growth in central Europe: projects to help protect and manage natural and cultural heritage, increasingly vulnerable to environmental and economic pressures
• Cooperating on transport to better connect central Europe: projects will aim at improving connections of regions and cities to European transport networks and strengthening multi-modal environmentally friendly passenger and freight transport.

For more information please visit www.interreg-central.eu