The final version of the ENI CBC Black Sea Basin Programme 2014-2020 has been approved by the Joint Programming Committee, the decision-making body composed by representatives of all the participating countries.
The total budget of the Programme is 49 million Euro, where 39 million Euro funded from the European Neighbourhood Instrument (ENI) and 10 million Euro funded from the Instrument for Pre-Accession (IPA II) for Turkey’s participation.
The participating countries to the Programme include the following: Armenia, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Turkey, Ukraine, Russian Federation [1], Azerbaijan [2].
The Programme is focused on 2 thematic objectives which will be addressed through the following 4 priorities:
1. Promote business and entrepreneurship within the Black Sea basin:
- Priority 1.1 Jointly promote business and entrepreneurship in the tourism and cultural sectors
- Priority 1.2 Increase cross-border trade opportunities and modernisation in the agricultural and connected sectors
2. Promote coordination of environmental protection and joint reduction of marine litter in the Black Sea basin:
- Priority 2.1 Improve joint environmental monitoring
- Priority 2.2 Promote common awareness-raising and joint actions to reduce river and marine litter
The document will be submitted for approval to the European Commission by the end of June 2015. The text of the Programme may be downloaded here.
The programme is expected to be approved by the European Commission before the end of 2015, while the first call for proposals is expected to be launched in the second half of 2016.
[1] Russian Federation has not been actively involved in the programme preparation and is unlikely to join the programme implementation.
[2] Azerbaijan withdrew from the negotiation on the development of the programme on 7 May 2015.