New Programme Coming Soon
After receiving comments from the European Commission on the Co-operation Programme submitted in March, and following a round of formal and informal negotiations with the Commission, the amended document was resubmitted for approval on 30 June.
Several versions of the Co-operation Programme 2014-2020 have been presented to the public since the beginning of the programming process, with the latest draft available on the Programme’s website since the end of March 2015.
The document is the result of the work of the expert team, who have been working steadily on the analysis of all the relevant documentation and simultaneously with the stakeholders in the field, through interviews, surveys and thematic workshops. Reinforced by the inputs of the members of the Task Force representing the widest-most number of the region’s population and relevant public institutions, they came up with the first draft version of the Co-operation Programme in April 2014. Several amended versions followed, based on the results of public consultations held in Sopje (Virovitičko-podravska County, Croatia) on 7 May 2014 and comments received from relevant stakeholders in the region, before the end ‘product’ was submitted to the European Commission in March 2015.
When working out the strategy of the new Programme, the continuity with the previous programming period was of outmost importance and was recognised by the ex-ante evaluators as one of the strongest points of the document. This means that all of the chosen Thematic Objectives, as well as the respective Priority Axes reflect and build on the results of the 2007-2013 Programme:
Priority Axis 1:
Economic Development - Enhancing the competitiveness of SMEs
Priority Axis 2:
Sustainable Use of Natural and Cultural Assets – Preserving and Protecting the Environment and Promoting Resource Efficiency
Priority Axis 3:
Cooperation - Enhancing Institutional Capacity and an Efficient Public Administration
Priority Axis 4:
Education - Investing in Education, Training, including Vocational Training for Skills and Lifelong Learning by Developing Education and Training Infrastructure
Priority Axis 5:
Technical Assistance
These Priority Axes are part of a comprehensive strategy identifying the appropriate course of action in each of the individual fields that will jointly contribute to the harmonised development of the cross-border region, benefiting in this way the local communities and bringing them closer to each other while working to achieve the long-term vision for the programme area, jointly formulated by the various participants of the programming process in the following way:
“The Hungary-Croatia border area is characterised by an intense and diverse co-operation, facilitated by appropriate cross-border connections, shared knowledge and active and motivated groups of the society, in the focus of which stands the sustainable and value-added exploitation of the region’s rich natural and cultural resources and the permanent enrichment of economic, institutional and individual relationships across the border.”
During spring of 2015 the Managing Authority received formal comments of the document from the European Commission and worked with the expert team on resolving the mostly technical issues, while keeping the information channel with the Commission constantly open in the form of informal consultations. This joint effort was presented to the Task Force of the now officially named Interreg V-A Hungary-Croatia Co-operation Programme 2014-2020, and approved at their last meeting in June 2015.
The amended document was submitted on 30 June 2015 to enter the next phase of approval procedure with high confidence in its swift approval by the Commission.
