Bulgaria celebrates European Cooperation Day and 30th anniversary of territorial cooperation programmes

In the period 2014-2020 we implemented more than 660 projects under 12 programmes

Bulgaria celebrates the European Day of Cooperation and the 30th anniversary of the European territorial cooperation programmes.  The initiative is celebrated with various events in all European countries today.  The motto of this year's celebration is "Together we can do more".

The Interreg territorial cooperation programmes are a key element of the European Union's cohesion policy.  Their aim is to address common problems of neighbouring regions in areas such as health, education, youth, transport, environment, science and culture.  In the current programming period, Bulgaria, through the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works, participates in 12 EU territorial cooperation programmes in different areas - cross-border, transnational and interregional cooperation, with a total budget of over €1.3 billion.  To date, more than 660 projects have been funded with the participation of Bulgarian partners. Our country is the Managing Authority for three of the cross-border cooperation programmes - with Serbia, the Republic of North Macedonia and Turkey. Since 2014, 243 investments worth BGN 133 million have been supported.

 "When 30 years ago the idea of cooperation between the territories in Europe was born, hardly anyone imagined how visible and significant an effect we would achieve in changing the lives of people in the border areas", said Deputy Minister of Regional Development and Public Works Denitsa Nikolova in a special video address on the occasion of the anniversary.  In it, she underlined the importance of the European programmes for supporting the economic, social and cultural development in the peripheral territories. "The facts show that we have achieved much more than just implementing projects with our neighbours.  The indicators and results show that we are improving the quality of life of the people and providing additional opportunities for their future realisation and development," Nikolova said.

According to her, there is still untapped potential for border regions to be developed with the help of European funding and partnership.  "Europe is increasingly relying on territorial development approaches to bring out the specificities of individual localities, including for the realisation of people at local level, and this is set as a priority for the new programming period 2021-2027."

The Deputy Regional Minister added that we are currently facing a number of challenges that require us to be more flexible and adaptable.  "In the next period, we are focusing our efforts to support the economic development of cross-border territories, because we believe that this is the most important measure, with the greatest effectiveness in overcoming crises.  It is important for us to lend a hand to active entrepreneurship to increase the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises to reach new markets.  Bulgaria already has the experience and capacity that will lead to higher results. Borders must provide opportunities from which we can benefit," she added.

Because of the anti-epidemic measures, the anniversary will be celebrated with various initiatives online.  The Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works, together with partners from Serbia, the Republic of North Macedonia and Turkey, prepared a special film.  It presents the cross-border cooperation programmes between the four countries and several of the successfully implemented projects.

The film can be viewed after 4 p.m. today on the Facebook pages of all three programs: https://www.facebook.com/interregipacbcbgnmk, https://www.facebook.com/ipacbcbgrs and https://www.facebook.com/BulgariaTurkey.