Norway expands support for cross-border cooperation
Cross-border cooperation has been included as one of the priority points in the new agreement on EEA/Norway Grants — the Norwegian contribution to the new EU member states in Central Europe. Our experiences from the Barents Region should be applied, Norwegian authorities say.
The EEA/Norway Grants should be seen as a contribution to the development of the new EU member states, rather than a fee for access to the EU market, Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre underlined at the National Forum on Europe this week.
In his opening speech at the forum, an annual event which this year was devoted to the new period of the EEA/Norway Grants, Støre also stressed that the money is part of a Norwegian foreign policy tool and that “they should leave Norwegian footprints in Europe”.
New Norway Grants programme
In the new period from 2009 to 2014, Norway will grant about 1.8 billion EUR to projects in 15 EU countries, nine of them with a border to non-members in Eastern Europe. Of the money, about a quarter is to be spent on programmes related to environment and climate change.
However, also cross-border cooperation is a significant component in the new grant period. Unlike in the period 2004-2009, cross-border cooperation has been laid down as a separate programme area, which has its overall objective to “strengthened cross-border cooperation between regions on both sides of the EU external border.”
Sharing experiences
Foreign Minister Støre at the forum confirmed to BarentsObserver that Norwegian experiences in the field combined with international demands is one of the reasons why the new programme has been established.
-We have experiences both with the Nordic countries and with Russia, and there is a demand in Europe [within the field], the minister said. –That is one of the reasons why we put this on the table, he added.
Norway has since the establishment of the Barents Euro-Arctic Region in 1993 strongly engaged in cross-border cooperation with Russia and significant project funds have been channeled through the Norwegian Barents Secretariat.
The Barents Secretariat has itself engaged in cooperation with Central European partners with the aim to share experiences from cross-border cooperation and was one of the initiators of the European Border Dialogues network.
Read more about the EEA Grants and Norway Grants here (external link)
