Kick off event of the Danube Transnational Programme

On 23-24 September over 500 people from several EU countries, Ukraine and Moldova, including EECU representative Agnieszka Schirru-Nowicka, participated in the kick-off event of the Danube Transnational Programme in Budapest, Hungary.
During the event, the programme was presented and the first call for proposals was officially launched. Programme stakeholders and potential partners had the opportunity to meet, share their visions for the programme area and develop project ideas. The kick-off event had an official, general dimension as well as a more practical, technical one.
The first day comprised of stakeholders’ presentations and a part dedicated to present the programme and the first call for proposals. There was time as well for a panel discussion on the links and differences with the EUSDR and other transnational programmes in the area. On the second day of the event, the participants had the opportunity to join eight thematic workshops. The parallel workshops dealt with more concrete aspects related to the specific objectives within the four priorities axis.
The Danube Transnational Programme is a financing instrument of the European Territorial Cooperation (ETC), better known as Interreg, which promotes economic, social and territorial cohesion in the Danube Region. ETC is one of the goals of the European Union cohesion policy and provides a framework for the implementation of joint actions and policy exchanges between national, regional and local actors from different EU Member States. Project partners from Moldova and 4 Ukrainian oblasts: zakarpatska, ivano-frankivska, chernivetska  and odeska can currently participate in the programme as associated partners (meaning that only their travel costs can be reimbursed) but it is foreseen that EU funding for them will be confirmed by the end of 2016 and from that moment they will be able to join the project consortia as standard project partners.
The total programme budget is 263 million euros, including the EU support (221 924 597,00 €) and the national counterpart (41 065 242,00 €). Selected projects are financed up to 85% of their costs.