European Neighbourhood Instrument Cross Border Cooperation: State of play of the ENI CBC Programmes for the period Final Seminar ENPI CBC Kolarctic Programme 9 December 2014, Rovaniemi Nathalie Thiberge, European Commission

First generation of integrated CBC between Member States and Partner countries: ENPI CBC As from 2007: Fully integrated projects with one contract covering both sides of the borders Single set of rules Pooled ERDF/ENPI funding Total EU contribution: 950 m EUR (ERDF + ENPI) 13 (out of 15 initially envisaged) Programmes on- going on the EU external borders with Joint Managing Authorities established in Member States

What types of Projects did we implement so far? 1."Standard projects" selected via Call for proposals: 933 ongoing or already finalised 2. Large Scale Projects identified and selected directly by the participating countries – Direct award. 51 projects mainly on renovation of border crossing points, roads etc.

So far, CBC in a nutshell: High quality project implementation (confirmed by external monitoring) Strong interest and commitment at all levels (programme & project) despite a difficult context (political crisis etc) "CBC" impact to be reinforced (new programmes more targeted) Capacity building needs at local level in Partner countries

What next? The ENI CBC Continuity principle Shared management principle but more financial responsibilities to both MS and PC 17 programmes (3 trilateral programmes split into bilateral ones and a new "basin programme" the Mid Atlantic Sea Basin)

ENI CBC programmes (EU contribution 1,052 MEUR) Land Border ProgrammesSea crossing Programmes KolarcticItaly/Tunisia Karelia South East Finland/Russia Estonia/Russia Latvia/Russia Lithuania/Russia Poland/Russia Latvia/Lithuania/Belarus Sea Basin programmes Poland/Belarus UkraineBaltic Sea Region Hungary/Slovakia/Romania/UkraineBlack Sea Romania/UkraineMediterranean Sea Romania/MoldovaMid-Atlantic

Challenges ahead First time that Programmes have to develop their own procedures Higher responsibilities of Partner countries (capacity issue) Financing Agreements negotiations

How are the ENI CBC programmes prepared? What is the Legal framework? ENI regulation: sets the principles of CBC between MS and PC: ADOPTED (March 2014) CBC programming document lists the objectives, programmes' areas and budgets: ADOPTED (October 2014) Implementing rules gives the framework for implementation: ADOPTED (August 2014) JOP: developed by participating countries: Specific objectives, project selection, programme management etc Must be submitted to the EC within one year after the adoption of the programming document Financing agreements (EC/Partner country + co-signature by MS in the case of cofinancing by PC) Defines the contribution of the E and of the Partner country.and conditions for implementation Must be signed at the latest at the end of the year following the year of adoption of the JOP

Expected timeline Submission of JOP: Mid 2015 Decision adopted by the EC within 6 months Financing agreements to be signed at the latest at the end of the year after the programme adoption (2016/2017) First calls for proposals 2016/2017 First projects: 2017

Want to know more? region-and-russia/eu-support-border-cooperation-eu- neighbourhood-and-russia_en region-and-russia/eu-support-border-cooperation-eu- neighbourhood-and-russia_en (Cross-Border Cooperation 'neighbourhood' group)