INTERACT, which is a programme supporting the management bodies of the cross border cooperation programmes implemented throughout Europe, organized a seminar named “Interreg Specific Objective 1: A better cooperation governance (ISO1)” online on the 16th of June.

The representatives from several cross border cooperation programmes and the European Commission (DG REGIO) participated in the web-seminar. Head of Department of Union Programmes and Cross Border Cooperation (CBC) Ms. Şebnem Sözer, EU Affairs Experts Mr. Serkan Bozkurt, and Ms. Övünç Güneş represented Turkey under Interreg-IPA Bulgaria-Turkey CBC Programme and ENI Black Sea Basin CBC Programme whose National Authority is the Directorate for EU Affairs.

This policy objective is designed specifically for Interreg programmes and includes specific objectives like supporting the institutional capacity and reducing obstacles in the cross border region, developing sea-basin and macro-regional strategies, strengthening democracy, civil society, reform processes, and efficient public administration in the external EU borders. While activities such as trainings, peer reviews, staff exchanges, data collection, and people-to-people actions are expected to be supported under this policy objective, infrastructure projects cannot be financed by the ISO1.

The European Commission strongly recommends programmes to consider choosing the ISO1 as one of the policy objectives in the 2021-2027 period. The obligatory application of this policy objective by the Interreg programmes is also being discussed by the Commission. We maintain our works on determining policy objectives for CBC programmes in which Turkey will take part in 2021-2027 period.