December 9 (SeeNews) - The European Commission endorsed financing of 266 million euro ($281.3 million) between 2021 and 2027 for projects that will boost the sustainability and competitiveness of regions near the Danube river on the territories of 14 countries, including eight from Southeast Europe, the Bulgarian ministry of innovation said.
The new Interreg Danube Region Programme involves nine EU member states among which Slovenia, Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria, and five non-EU countries - Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine, the ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
The other EU beneficiaries are Austria, Germany's Baden-Wuerttemberg and Bavaria regions, Czechia, Slovakia and Hungary.
As much as 213 million euro will come under EU cohesion funding through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), with the balance to be made up by co-financing from the participating countries. Individual projects will receive ERDF grant of no more than 80% of their value.
Applications are required to be jointly submitted by project partners from at least three countries. National, regional or local institutions, universities, research institutes, private companies and non-profits are all eligible.
"The whole Danube space is suffering from its highly fragmented political and administrative character, which is further complicated by the extreme economic diversity of its countries and regions," according to the programme document.
The fresh funds are earmarked for four main priorities. These are innovation and technology skills transfer for smart specialisation, industrial transition and entrepreneurship; the development of renewable energy, climate change adaptation and disaster management measures with attention to bio-diversity; enhancing the labour market, education and training to encourage the region's socio-economic development, and lastly, improving regional governance for tackling major regional challenges, such as demographic changes. The programme will also support ways to provide better public services and advance digitalisation.
The first programme for transnational cooperation in the Danube region was implemented in 1997.
Past projects funded under the programme include TehcnoPark, a business incubator in the city of Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, an innovation and economic accelerator centre in Balti, Moldova, and a solar panel, energy storage and electric car charging pilot lab in the Bulgarian city of Varna.
($ = 0.9457 euro)