The first meeting of the Joint Programming Committee – body responsible for the preparation of the Interreg NEXT (Neighbourhood External) Black Sea Basin Programme 2021-2027 – was held on the 29th of January 2020 in Brussels, Belgium. The eligible participating countries of the new Programme involves ten states from the Black Sea Basin: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Turkey and Ukraine.

This year, to celebrate European Cooperation Day, a Solid Waste collecting Action was conducted at the Black Sea, because generating environmental attitudes is essential in the fight against climate change and the reduction of environmental pollution.
It is a step closer in spreading awareness of environmental challenges and good waste management practices in the Black Sea Basin region. Further, by involving children it was anticipated to improve attitudes towards the environment.

The new generation of projects to be funded under the Joint Operational Programme Black Sea Basin 2014-2020 has been approved by the Joint Monitoring Committee during the meeting held in Odessa, Ukraine, on 17th of September 2019.