Interreg Annual Event 2021 held

Interreg Annual Event 2021 was held as a hybrid meeting in Brussels on 7-8 October with the participation of representatives of Cross-border Cooperation Programmes from different countries. Representatives from the countries that are implementing cross-border cooperation programmes and the European Commission exchanged views and information on the implementation models of the 2021-2027 period and updates were provişded on the draft implementing acts of the Interreg, NDICI and ERDF Regulations.

As the representative of the Turkish National Authority for the CBC Black Sea Basin programme, Dr. Şebnem Sözer, Head of EU Programmes and Cross-Border Cooperation Department, participated in the meeting with representatives from the Black Sea Basin CBC Programme's Managing Authority. Sözer made a presentation in the meeting’s session titled “implementation. Ms. Sözer shared Türkiye’s experience on information activities for potential beneficiaries and the Project selection process and how coordination with the Managing Authority was ensured at the Joint Monitoring Committee meetings. She also elaborated the demand at the local level and the regional cooperation as some strengths of the Programme as well as the challenges in indicator management at the project level and possible measures to ensure better understanding by the beneficiaries in the coming period.

At the meeting, evaluation and selection process in Cross-border Cooperation Programmes, how the system was built, and impressions from different perspectives were discussed, and four parallel workshops were held on communication, green deal, implementation and governance. The meeting continued with the evaluation of the new generation of Interreg programmes and followed by a question and answer session.

In the concluding session, youth representatives, who are part of the IVY volunteers under the European Solidarity Corps, in promoting the Interreg programmes and projects, talked about the outcomes and feedback on the overall event as well as their expectations from the upcoming period. IVY volunteers stated their willingness to actively participate in and benefit from the EU and Interreg Programmes in the future. The feedback provided by the representatives of various Interreg Programmes across Europe based on past and present experiences at the sessions will pave the way to the programming of implementation processes of the 2021-2027 period of Interreg CBC Programmes.