Monitoring Committee of (Interreg VI-A) Bulgaria-Türkiye Programme had its first meeting

The first call for the strategic project on tackling irregular migration to be launched soon

The first meeting of the Monitoring Committee of the (Interreg VI-A) Bulgaria-Türkiye Programme 2021-2027 took place on December 1, 2022 in Edirne, Türkiye.

The Committee approved the Guidelines for applicants of the programme’s strategic project. It will be financed under Priority 3 "A more secure cross-border region", specific objective "Improving the migration management". The strategic partners in the project, totalling EUR 1.7 M, will be the regional directorates of the Bulgarian Ministry of Interior in Haskovo, Yambol and Burgas and the Turkish municipalities of Edirne and Kirklareli. The EU support will focus on training, exchange of experience and good practices to boost the capacity of police departments in migration management and security and the supply of specialised equipment to increase the technical preparedness of the project partners. "Our aim with the new programme is to offer solutions for the current needs of the region. Undoubtedly, illegal migration puts forward serious challenges and the new programme offers measures that can be applied as soon as possible", Deputy Minister of Regional Development and Public Works of Bulgaria, Desislava Georgieva, announced at the opening of the meeting.

The total budget of the programme for the 2021-2027 period is EUR 34.4 M. It will support also SMEs in the process of green transition and the integrated territorial development.

During the meeting, an information on the implementation of the Bulgaria-Türkiye Programme 2014-2020 was presented. A total of 101 joint projects have been funded, totalling EUR 28.7 M, of which 98 have successfully completed their implementation. Payments reached EUR 24.6 M (83% of the programme) and EUR 22 M (73% of the programme) was certified. Progress was reported on the implementation of the BLUE GROWTH COLLABs strategic project, under which the research laboratories at the University Prof. Dr. Assen Zlatarov - Burgas and the Trakya University in Edirne were renovated. Both institutions are looking for scientific solutions for prevention of pollution in the Black Sea.

Members of the Monitoring Committee were informed also on the evaluations carried out on the Interreg-IPA CBC Programme Bulgaria - Türkiye 2014-2020. It was reported that the recommendations in the mid-term evaluation on the use of a combination of strategic projects and grants have been taken into account both in the launch of the Third call for the 2014-2020 programming period (for the strategic project), and in the preparation of the (Interreg VI-A) Bulgaria-Türkiye programme 2021-2027.