The latest edition of the Baltic Sea Region Programme Newsletter brings important information about the latest developments within the Programme.
Among the highlights is the the decision of the Joint Programming Committee taken in Warsaw, Poland on 15th May 2014 approving the new Cooperation Programme for 2014-2020. After the final approval from the European Commission expected by July 2014, the Programme will focus its activities on innovation, efficient use of natural resources and accessibility. It will also include support facility for the implementation of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region. Within these priorities more than 260 mln EUR will be distributed among the most successful transnational projects.
Also in the Newsletter is the information about drafting process of the new Programme which relied heavily on significant involvement from many of the Programme stakeholders. Between January and March 2014 more than 40 different stakeholders submitted their comments on the draft Cooperation Programme helping define its thematic scope. This was followed by a series of workshops and a survey which allowed hundreds of potential beneficiaries to give their feedback on the draft.
Finally, the Newsletter highlights the results of a survey on innovation in SMEs conducted by a cluster of 10 BSR Programme projects “Innovation in SMEs“. The results contradict the commonly held opinion that innovation is mostly about technology and focus more on non-technological aspects such as process innovation, social innovation and organisational innovation.
The entire Baltic Sea Region Newslletter is available here.
For more information about the Programme please visit its official website.