The Danube Region 2021-2027 program will have a budget of 266 million euros

Bulgaria will have access to over 266m euros to fund joint projects under the Danube Region 2021-2027 program. The fourteen countries participating in it adopted the final version at a meeting in Budapest. The managing authority, the Hungarian Ministry of Finance, will formally submit the program to the European Commission. It is expected to be approved in early September this year, after which its actual implementation will begin.

During the meeting, the program partner countries unanimously expressed support and sympathy for Ukraine for the military actions on its territory. In order to support and promote transnational cooperation, it was decided that Ukraine would participate in the program with its entire territory.

Regions from Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Germany (Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg), Croatia, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Moldova and Ukraine will also take part in the Danube Region.

Beneficiaries will be able to submit project proposals under four priorities: "A More Competitive and Innovative Danube Region", "A Greener and Low-carbon Danube Region", "A More Social Danube Region" and "Better Cooperation Governance in the Danube Region".

At the suggestion of the European Commission, the savings of the European Neighborhood Instrument under the Danube Program 2014-2020 in the amount of EUR 5 million, provided for Ukraine and Moldova, will be redirected to other European programs with the participation of both countries to finance activities for humanitarian aid and refugee support.

The meeting discussed the opportunities to support the Danube Strategy that the future program will provide, as well as the mechanisms to facilitate the implementation of joint projects and initiatives.