At last we have Interreg Europe!

After a long wait throughout 2021, on 5th January 2022 the Interreg agency submitted to the European Commission the work plan for the Interreg Europe programme for the 2021-2027 period. This milestone marks the starting point of the sixth period of the European Cross-Border Cooperation programme, Interreg.

Interreg Europe is the first programme to submit its work plan to the European Commission. This delay has meant that the other Interreg sub-programmes have not submitted their work plans either, waiting the framework Interreg programme. For this reason, the first calls of the Interreg programme have been delayed by more than a year since the start of the budget period 2021-2027.

Over 8 billion in budget

The Interreg Europe programme will continue supporting interregional cooperation between regions across Europe with over  €8.05 billion of budget for this VI period. The overall objective of European Regional Policy and its European Territorial Cooperation (ETC) strategy is to promote the harmonious economic, social, and territorial development of the Union as a whole. Interreg is therefore structured around three lines of cooperation: cross-border, transnational and interregional. Its main thematic areas for this sixth period will be:

• Greening Europe
• A smarter Europe
• A more connected Europe
• A more social Europe
• A Europe closer to its citizens

It can take up to 6 months from the submission of the Interreg Europe work plan for it to be approved by the European Commission. However, the first calls for proposals for this programme are expected to be published between February and March 2022.

Other Interreg sub-programmes

On the other hand, this milestone marks the starting signal for the submission of the rest of the Interreg sub-programmes by the different territorial agencies. We know that some of these subprogrammes are very advanced, some of them have had their final drafts published since autumn 2021. Even, some agencies have even launched calls for proposals with the remaining funds from the fifth period of the programme, as is the case of Interreg Central, Interreg Alpine or Interreg North Sea.

At Zabala Innovation we have confirmation that in February they expect to present their first calls for proposals for this new period Interreg MED, Interreg Central Baltic Sea, Interreg North Sea and Interreg Flanders area. Other programmes such as Interreg Poctefa, Interreg Atlantic, Interreg Danube or Interreg Sudoe are a little later and are not expected before spring.

This work plan means undoubtedly great news for interregional and cross-border projects in Europe and the exchange of good practices, especially for administrations. It will help to strengthen cooperation between entities from different European countries and to create a more cohesive European Union.