Joint Secretariat of the Interreg South Baltic Programme has released information about the current state-of-the-art in programming the Interreg SBP for the years 2021-2027. You can read it below on go directly to the Interreg SBP website: https://southbaltic.eu/interreg-south-baltic-2021-2027
Euroregion Baltic is directly involved in the works on the new Programme for 2021-2027 being an active member of the Joint Programming Committee, members of two SWokring Groups for the new Programme, as we as leading the Join Delegation of Euroregions in the Programme Monitoring Committee.
The Joint Programming Committee (JPC) was established and the 1st meeting took place on 4th February 2020, during the meeting, the JPC Rules of Procedure, as well as Terms of Reference for the socio-economic analisys, were adopted. In the following months, the public procurement procedure was carried out and the best offer was selected. Contract with the PWC Advisory was signed on 18th June 2020.
During the second meeting of the JPC held on 22nd of June 2020, PWC Advisory presented the methodological report and the first results of the study. The cooperation with the Contractor was divided into two stages:
- In the first stage, Contractor was obliged to conduct socio-economic analysis, SWOT/TOWS analysis and Problems and Objectives Tree (POT). The socio-economic analysis, SWOT and POT stage ended on 8 October 2020 and it was a starting point for further discussions and decisions on Programme Strategy, Priorities and Specific Objectives;
- In the second stage on the basis of the conducted research, surveys and workshops with JPC, MA, JS, public stakeholders etc. (held in the Summer) as well as requirements and requests submitted during the 3rd JPC meeting (10th September 2020), Contractor prepared a proposal of the Programme Strategy, Priority Axes and Specific Objectives, covering:
In the Programme Strategy
– characteristics of the eligible area;
– most important common challenges;
– characteristics of the basic social, economic and territorial differences occurring in the CP area.
In the Programme Priorities and Specific Objectives
– justification of the choice;
– related types of actions and their expected contribution;
– indicative percentage breakdown of funds by category of intervention;
– first proposal of the output indicators and result indicators selected from the common list;
– the main target groups.
The first proposal of the Strategy and Programme Priorities was delivered on 20 October 2020 by the PWC Advisory. Working Group 1 was established by the JPC (20 October 2020) and started work jointly with the Contractor on Programme Strategy and Priorities. During the 4th JPC meeting organised on 3-4 November, 2020 first draft of the Strategy was presented.
The next step was the establishment (19 November 2020) of the Working Group 2 for the implementation arrangements of the future Programme. Afterwards, the second draft of the Strategy and Programme Priorities incorporating the results of the WG1 discussions was developed on 30 November 2020.
Currently, work is focused on the joint elaboration of contribution to Programme Document according to the template for Interreg Programmes as stated in the draft of Interreg regulation:
- Programme strategy: main development challenges and policy responses etc.;
- Priorities, covering: specific objectives, types of actions, indicators, main target groups etc.;
- Financing plan (incl. ERDF and national co-financing);
- Implementing provisions (Programme Authorities, liabilities of Member States );
- Use of simplified costs options.
During the 5th JPC meeting planned for 12th January 2021, the final draft of the Strategy, Priorities and Specific Objectives should be adopted. In the next steps planned for I – II Quarter of 2021, the process of drafting of the Cooperation Programme document as well as Strategic Environmental Assessment will begin.
The Joint Secretariat of the Interreg South Baltic Programme encourages all stakeholdrs to take part in the public consultations of these documents. Information will appear on the programme website in due course.
