SEE Programme 2007 – 2013 Experiences in the Danube Region and next steps toward Danube Programme DRS Joint PA7 SG, PA8 SG and PA9 SG Meeting Bratislava, 15 May 2013

Contents of the presentation − SEE Programme in a nutshell − State of art of implementation − Next programming period Cohesion Policy 2014 – 2020

EU Member States: Austria, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania Non-EU-member States: Albania, Bosnia- Herzegovina, Croatia, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, Republic of Moldova, Ukraine (Italy and Ukraine do not participate with its whole territory) The Programme area

Full Name: SEE Transnational Cooperation Programme 2007 – 2013 Family: EU Regional Policy (not enlargement, not neighbourhood) Strand: Transnational (not interregional, not cross border) Financial instruments: ERDF / IPA / ENPI / national resources Total budget: 267 MEuro (indicative) Current portfolio: 122 projects (all budget committed) Average project’ size: 1.6 MEuro Average partnership size: 15 partners (LP principle) Type of activities: “soft actions” (development of joint services, setting up of joint standards -> NO infrastructures/investments) The SEE Programme: ID CARD

Global objective Improvement of the territorial, economic and social integration process and contribution to cohesion, stability and competitiveness through the development of transnational partnerships and joint actions on matters of strategic importance Specific objectives Facilitation of innovation, entrepreneurship, knowledge economy and information society by concrete cooperation action and visible results Improvement of the attractiveness of regions and cities taking into account sustainable development, physical and knowledge accessibility and environmental quality by integrated approaches and concrete cooperation action and visible results Foster integration by supporting balanced capacities for transnational territorial cooperation at all levels Priority Axes P1: Facilitation of innovation and entrepreneurship P2: Protection and improvement of the environment P3: Improvement of the accessibility P4: Development of transnational synergies for sustainable growth areas P5: Technical assistance to support implementation and capacity building Promotion of sustainable development Promotion of equal opportunities and non discrimination application of EU principles The Programme’s strategy

1 st Call: (May 2008 – March 2009) fully open - “Bottom up” 2 nd Call: (December 2009 – December 2010) open targeted – “Bottom up” 3 rd Call: (June 2010 – February 2012) strategic – “Top down” ERDF/IPA/ENPI commitment Achievement of the objectives 100% 1 st Call 2 nd Call 3 rd Call 4 th Call The implementation: 4 calls 4 th Call: (October 2011 – June 2012) fully open – “Bottom up”

The 1 st Call for proposal Open Call – Bottom-up approach – 76M€ ERDF 820 Expressions of Interest (EoI) 40 Projects approved The 2 nd Call for proposal Targeted restricted – GAP filling – 43M€ ERDF 550 Expressions of Interest (EoI) 26 Projects approved Open Call – Bottom-up approach 54M€ ERDF 341 Application Forms 48 Projects approved Strategic Call 23M€ ERDF 44 Expressions of Interest (EoI) 8 Projects approved The 3rd Call for proposal The 4th Call for proposal Projects’ portfolio

Forewords to the topic of the (im)perfect matching SEE strategy approved in 2007, EUSDR in 2011 Many SEE projects are taken on board by the EUSDR action plan as examples: high complementarities in the SEE ► DRS direction!... … but some of the examples of projects proposed in the EUSDR action plan better fit cross-border or sometimes just national operations (not full compliance with the SEE transnational character or eligibility rules for partners and expenditures) All SEE projects were selected according to quality criteria set up in 2009 (before the strategy was put in place!)

The 4 th Call for Proposals Last (4th) SEE Call open from to (342 applications submitted) Assessment criteria of previous calls substantially maintained (no additional criteria for EUSDR supported project proposals) Technical assessment carried out under the coordination of the SEE JTS Letter of recommendation (LoR) from the PACs introduced Different understanding / approach toward the letter (Environment very active, Transport less, others not involved) LoR assessed as part of “political sustainability” criterion Lack of coordination generated wrong expectations

The future: Danube and SE Gateway

Danube Task Force of the Partner States set up and meeting (next time will be the 4 th ) First meeting with the PACs next 21/05 in Ljubljana Strong alignment with the EUSDR but not exclusive tool for that (EUSDR is more than Danube…) Details on PACs involvement (in use of TA resources, project generation, etc.) still to be discussed and agreed Goals: Danube Programme to be approved by mid 2014

Ivan Curzolo SEE Joint Technical Secretariat