In the context of programming process, the Managing Authority of Interreg V-A Romania-Hungary Programme, with the support of National Authority, the Joint Secretariat and Information Points in Hungary, organized a new series of events, aiming at providing relevant information on the 5 Policy Objectives provided for in the draft regulations.
The events were organised on both sides of the border, with the scope of promoting the future cooperation programme between Romania and Hungary, in order to have well prepared applicants, ready to start the development of future projects. The thematic workshops, taking place between 24 and 28 February 2020, continued the series of bilateral workshops held in 2019.
We began in Nyíregyháza, on February 24th, with Policy Objective 3 – a more connected Europe, talking about strategic transport and digital networks. The next day, February 25th, Policy Objective 5 – a Europe closer to citizens was presented in Békéscsaba, where discussions focused on integrated territorial strategies in fields like cultural heritage and tourism. We crossed the border, on February 26th, to share our concerns regarding climate changes and natural heritage preservation with participants gathered in Satu Mare, in the context of a greener Europe (Policy Objective 2), while in Oradea, on February 27th , education, employment and especially healthcare, in the context of a more social Europe (Policy Objective 4), kept the agenda. The series ended in Timișoara, on February 28th, where we’ve been smart and innovative, just like Policy Objective 1 – a smarter Europe – encourages us to be.
Altogether, more than 250 people attended our events, sharing their ideas and actively participating to discussions. They also joined our on-line survey, on aspects related to policy objectives (Interreg-specific objectives included), partnership, project ideas, estimated budgets and the importance of mature project ideas in the economy of future cooperation programme implementation. The stakeholders in the eligible area expressed their interest in all 5 Policy Objectives, the peak of the week being reached concerning the Policy Objective 4, with focus on healthcare related activities. In relation to the 2 Interreg-specific objectives, “a better governance” tilted the balance.
The survey also showed that more than 50% of participants already had a project idea and many have identified a cross-border partner to implement it with, but 75% of the respondents expressed their interest in attending a partner-search forum.
Finally, the maturity of the project idea (already elaborated Feasibility Studies and/or other technical documentations) was considered as highly important / important for successfully implementing a programme (more than 80% of the respondents) and the estimated budgets ranked over 500,000 Euro.
We would like to address special thanks to Mr. Florin Vasiloni, General Consul - Consulate General of Romania in Gyula, Mr. Sava-Constantin Diamandi, First Secretary - Embassy of Romania in Hungary and Mr. Daniel Banu, General Consul - Consulate General of Romania in Szeged who honored us with their presence. Their constant support is highly appreciated.
The presentations delivered during the thematic workshops are available here.
