is a Community initiative which aims to stimulate interregional cooperation in the EU between 2000-06 and is made up of 3 strands and has a total budget of 4,875 billion (1999 prices).

A: cross-border cooperation

Cross-border cooperation between adjacent regions aims to develop cross-border social and economic centres through common development strategies (67% of the budget).

Transnational cooperation between national, regional and local authorities aims to promote better integration within the Union through the formation of large groups of European regions (27% of the budget).

C: interregional cooperation

Interregional cooperation between regional and other public authorities across the entire EU territory and neighbouring countries (6% of the budget).It allows regions without joint borders to work together in common projects and develop networks and to improve the effectiveness of regional development policies through large-scale information exchange.

To simplify programme management, the territory of the EU has been divided into four programme zones (North, East, South and West)*. The office in Rostock is responsible for INTERREG III C North and III B.

INTERREG III A (not yet in Rostock)

INTERREG III B, The Baltic Sea Region (BSR)

Joint Secretariat Rostock

Grubenstrasse 20, 18055 Rostock, Germany

Tel: +49 381 45484 5281, Fax.: +49 381 45484 5282

info@bsrinterreg.net

The eligible areas in the BSR are:

Belarus: Minsk, Grodno, Brest and Vitebsk Oblasts
Denmark: The whole country
Estonia: The whole country
Finland: The whole country
Germany: The Federal States (Länder) of Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Schleswig-Holstein and Niedersachsen (only NUTS II area Regierungsbezirk Lüneburg)
Latvia: The whole country
Lithuania: The whole country
Norway: The whole country
Poland: The whole country
Russia: St Petersburg and surrounding Leningrad Oblast, Karelian Republic, the Oblasts of Kaliningrad, Murmansk, Novgorod and Pskov. For projects concerning the Barents Region, also co-operation with Archangelsk Oblast and Nenzen Okrug is envisaged.
Sweden: The whole country

Budget

Budget for Baltic Sea Region for 2001-2006:

97,11mln € from ERDF in one common pool plus national co-financing

Desirable results:

framework plans/sector concepts for specific areas ( transnational transport/development corridors, coastal zones, tourism areas, landscapes, land use plans)
feasibility studies ( technical, economical, financial)
technical investigations ( geological/engineering studies, expertise on soil water, reconstruction plans)
management and marketing concepts
small scale infrastructure investments for model and pilot projects of transnational relevance
transnational networking on strategic spatial development concepts, relevant BSR development issues

Financial beneficiaries:

· public authorities on national, regional, sub-regional and local level

· other non-profit-making legal bodies like research and training institutions, foundations or NGOs

Financing from programme fund:

maximum up to 75% for Objective 1 areas
up to 50% for all other areas

Conditions

Projects must be:

transnational (3 partners, of which at least two should be financial contributors, of which at least one from EU-Member States)
long-term
multi-sectoral and territorial
in principle no longer than 3 years

Information Manager

Darijus Valiucko

Tel: +49 381 45484 5277, Fax: +49 381 45484 5282, darijus.valiucko@bsrinterreg.net

Example projects

http://www.spatial.baltic.net/programme.html

INTERREG III C

Joint Secretariat Rostock

Grubenstrasse 20, 18055 Rostock, Germany, Tel: +49 381 45484 5281, Fax.: +49 381 45484 5282, info@bsrinterreg.net

Budget

The INTERREG IIIC programme is financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), as part of the Structural Funds and co-financed by national project partners.

The total ERDF budget of all four INTERREG IIIC zones amounts to EUR 293 million. (89,4 mln € for West, 27,4 North, 44,3 for East and 131,4 for South) .

The rate of INTERREG IIIC co-financing is 50% of the eligible budget. For Objective 1 areas the ERDF assistance can be up to 75% (Structural Funds Objective 1 programmes aim to help regions lagging behind to catch up)

Border regions

The programmes of the North, East and South zone include a special budget for operations linking European Union border regions with the candidate countries: 15 million €.

Types of operations

Following types of operations will be funded:

A regional framework operation (RFO)

Conditions: Partners from at least 3 countries, 2 must be Member States; ERDF contribution for each operation: between 500.0000 and 5.000.000 €

Individual project

Partners from at least 3 countries, 2 must be Member States; contribution 200.000- 1.000.000 €

Network

Partners from at least 5 countries, 3 must be Member States; contribution 200.000-1.000.000 €

Coordination Manager

Jana Wiegand

Phone: +49 (0) 381 45484 5285, Fax: +49 (0) 381 45484 5282, jana.wiegand@interreg3c.net

Example projects

Up to date there are no example projects for INTERREG IIIC. The first call for proposals for all four INTERREG IIIC programme zones started 10.10.2002 and was closed 10.01.2003.

The Application Pack

The Application Pack to INTERREG IIIC consist of a series of documents which are important for the development of an application. You can dowload them from: http://www.interreg3c.net/sixcms/detail.php?id=290

home: Av. de la Renaissance 1, B-1000 Brussels, T:00322-732-0788, F:-732-0795, Honert@Liaison-office.org (upd. 27.11.2002)

Contents

INTERREG III A (not yet in Rostock)