We happily announce that, on 15 December 2023, the European Commission approved the revised Interreg NEXT Black Sea Basin Programme, so to reflect the additional allocation of 19.96 mil. Euro in Interreg Funds, Armenia’s decision to rejoin the Programme, which we warmly salute, and the introduction of a new Programme priority: Competent and Resilient Region.
The total budget of the Programme thus becomes 94.45 mil. Euro, out of which 85.01 mil. Euro represents the EU funds and 9.44 mil. Euro is the national co-financing of participating states.
The newly introduced Programme priority - Competent and Resilient Region is targeting the Interreg Specific Objective 1 - Better cooperation governance, aiming to enhance the institutional capacity of public authorities across Programme area, to build mutual trust, and to enhance sustainable democracy and support civil society actors. The indicative proposed activities under this priority are:
supporting capacity building and trainings for public authorities and stakeholders at different policy and governance-levels for the efficient delivery of public services, reaping the benefits of digitalization;
exchanging knowledge and good practices between public authorities and civil society actors on how to improve the citizen's access to information and promote participation (including youth) in public decision-making;
developing ICT tools and/or digital solutions to allow citizens contributing to local and regional strategies and providing suggestions for improving policies;
actions for capacity building of various stakeholders in the region on how to access available funds and apply for calls for projects linked to the blue economy
The revised approved Programme may be consulted at: https://blacksea-cbc.net/interreg-next-bsb-2021-2027/programme-documents