Category: News

The new interregional cooperation programme – Interreg Europe – has been officially approved by the European Commission on 11th June 2015 in Brussels. The Interreg Europe programme financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) aims to improve the implementation of regional development policies and programmes, in particular programmes for Investment for Growth and Jobs and European Territorial Cooperation (ETC) programmes. There are four great topics:

• Research and Innovation
• Competitiveness of SMEs
• Low Carbon economy
• Environment and resource efficiency

By co-financing projects and four thematic platforms it allows regional and local public authorities and other players of regional relevance across Europe to exchange practices and ideas on the way public policies work, and thereby find solutions to improve their strategies for their own citizens.

The programme is financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The total budget for the programme is EUR 359 million. There are 30 Countries are participating in the programme: 28 EU Member States plus Switzerland and Norway.

The Interreg Europe is continuation of INTERREG IVC (2007-2013). EU support for interregional cooperation has existed for around 20 years. Several features have been introduced in the new programming period to ensure that EU funds are used more effectively:

1. Greater emphasis on improving programmes that are part of the European Union’s Cohesion policy
2. Capturing the project results: the more focused the topics, the greater the chances of producing effective results
3. Public administrations are the primary target group of Interreg Europe
4. Stakeholder group per participating region will have to be established

We recomend to read the INTERREG_EUROPE_leaflet, where you can easily  find all information about the programme.

Horizon 2020 is the financial instrument implementing the Innovation Union, a Europe2020 flagshipinitiative aimed at securing Europe’s global competitiveness. Horizon 2020 is open to everyone, with a simple structure that reduces red tape and time so participants can focus on what is really important. This approach makes sure new projects get off the ground quickly – and achieve results faster.

It has just lunched the Projects & Results Service for information on EU-funded research projects and project results. There, you can search and access all the European Commission’s information in the lifecycle of each project: the grant details, funding and participants, the projects’ own Report Summaries, the latest multilingual Results in Brief and links to specific publications and other documents.

A great tool for project management and inspiration!

Engagement in sport and physical activity is at an all-time low: 59% of Europeans never or seldom exercise or play sport (Eurobarometer). Participation in sport and physical activity is stagnating, and in some EU Member States, even declining. It’s not just people’s health and well-being that suffers; it’s our society and economy as a whole. Increased spending on health care, a loss of productivity in the workplace and reduced employability are just a few of the negative knock-on effects.

The #Be Active! European Week of Sport, 7-13 September 2015, aims to promote sport and physicalactivity across Europe. The Week is for everyone, regardless of age, background or fitness level. With a focus on grassroots initiatives, it will inspire Europeans to #BeActive on a regular basis and create opportunities in peoples’ everyday lives to exercise more. The Week is structured around four Focus Days:

• Education environment
• Workplace
• Outdoors
• Sport Clubs and Fitness Centres.

The European Week of Sport as a whole is composed of projects co-financed by the European Commission, as well as events organised by the Week’s European partners, national coordinators, ministries, civil society organisations, local authorities and the private sector. Because we all have a role to play in creating a culture that values sport and physical activity, any individual or organisation can also develop and register an event with the European Week of Sport, There are plenty of projects across Europe putting their own ideas into action.  Here you will find a map of the already submitted activities ans some tips to inspire you to get involved.

A #BeActive society is a healthy, happy and inclusive one.

Article by Nora Lázaro

INTERREG IVC programme just came to an end. It has been a laboratory of ideas that contributed considerably to EU territorial cohesion. It stimulated European regions to share their knowledge and solutions with each other and improve the effectiveness of regional policies and instruments.

INTERREG IVC involved 29 countries which shared solutions to generate sustainable economic growth and create jobs more easily and effectively together. Its approach was specifically designed to help regions progress, step by step, and achieve their ultimate goal. Whatever applicants needed – information, constructive feedback, training, exchange of ideas or promotional resources – INTERREG IVC was capable of providing the right support at the right time.In order to channel efforts for the best results, the programme focused on improving regional and local policies in two areas:
– Innovation and the knowledge economy
– Environment and risk prevention

The selection procedure was strict: only 1 in 5 project applications received funding and just 2,295 organisations out of 14,000 applicants were selected to take part in cooperation projects. The Institute for Regional Development successfully  joined the program.

INTERREG has just presented its interregional cooperation’s results from 2007-2014 online report. This attractive report gives you a summary of the programme’s actions in seven chapters. Click on ‘Learn more’ in each chapter for additional details and examples of successful projects, or use the navigation menu to go directly to the section that interests you most.

This program may have come to an end, but interregional cooperation continues! Next calls will be published under the INTERREG EUROPE programme

The results for Collaborative partnerships in the sport field and Not-for-profit European sport events related to the 2015 European Week of Sport were published last week. The projects were submitted to EACEA in January.
Only 5 Collaborative partnerships and 5 Not-for profit events received funding. You can have a look at the results here.
The Sport Chapter in the Erasmus+ Programme aims to support European partnerships on grassroots sport in order to pursue the following objectives:

• Tackle cross-border threats to the integrity of sport, such as doping, match fixing and violence, as well as all kinds of intolerance and discrimination;
• To promote and support good governance in sport and dual careers of athletes;
• To promote voluntary activities in sport, together with social inclusion, equal opportunities and awareness of the importance of health-enhancing physical activity, through increased participation in, and equal access to sport for all.

The next deadline is on the 14th of May for Collaborative partnerships in the sport field and Not-for-profit European sport events NOT related to the 2015 European Week of Sport.

The inaugural conference of the project Act Locally Develops Globally – But Green! entitled Roma as Leaders and subtitled “Social entrepreneurship in the field of waste management contributes to economic growth at the local level” was successfully held on the 19th of March in the Exe Iris Hotel Praha.
Program of the conference included official welcome by Mgr. Martin Synkule, MA, the CEO of EuDA, the introduction to the project given by Adnan Memed from the Municipality of Shuto Orizari and a talk by Mr. Nadir Redzepi from the Open Society Foundations with the topis “Roma in European perspective“.
After the short breake 3 best practices were presented:

• Self-entrepreneurship of Roma in Slovenia by Harris Tahirovic (President, Roma Informative Center Anglunipe) –
• Experience with green business in Shuto Orizari by Mr. Zoran Dimov (President, Association Roma Business Informative Center in Macedonia)
• Bulgarian experience with green business by Zlatko Mladenov (President, Roma Public Council Kupate, Bulgaria)

In the afternoon the participants were divided into working groups and discussed the topics below. At the end of the session outcomes were jointly presented and confronted with others.

• Workshop 1 – Legal environment of doing green business in the region (focus countries Macedonia, CZ, Bulgaria, Slovenia) and possible amendments towards its improvement
• Workshop 2 – Existing green businesses in the region (focus countries Macedonia, CZ, Bulgaria, Slovenia) and their success
• Workshop 3 -Options for environmental business: possibilities and conditions for starting a business.

For more information about the project have a look here.

Today was the deadline for submitting the applications under KA2 Erasmus+ (Strategic partnerships). With the help of our partners we submitted 23 educational project to different National Agencies and in different topics, including:

• financial literacy in grammar schools
• new approaches to teaching pupils with learning difficulties
• social entrepreneurship education
• education and skills in agro- and food sector
• healthy lifestyle and gastrotourism
• inclusion of Roma pupils to the school classes
• international cooperation education
• wine and tourism