The Interreg programme 2021-2027- financed by ERDF- aims to promote exchange and transfer of knowledge and best practices among the European regions, including Investment for jobs and growth goal programmes.

What is INTERREG?

The Interreg Europe programme financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) aims to improve the implementation of regional development policies and programmes, in particular programmes for Investment for Growth and Jobs and European Territorial Cooperation (ETC) programmes. 

Interreg is built around three strands of cooperation:

  • cross-border (Interreg A)
  • transnational (Interreg B) and
  • interregional (Interreg C)

By co-financing projects and four thematic platforms it allows regional and local public authorities and other players of regional relevance across Europe to exchange practices and ideas on the way public policies work, and thereby find solutions to improve their strategies for their own citizens.

Different Interreg programmes:

  • Interreg strands A and B: they focus on solutions to solve the cross-border or transnational challenges
  • Interreg Europe programme: allows for interregional capacity building to improve regional policies. Interreg Europe focuses on policy objectives to identify, disseminate and transfer good practice into regional development policies
  • Cooperation among all Interreg strands is furthermore ensured by the INTERACT programme in the various programme management areas. INTERACT focuses on the implementation of Interreg programmes and capitalization of their results. Therefore, INTERACT’s area of intervention stays in the cooperation domain.
  • Interreg strand C: Pan-European programme.

The Interreg Europe Policy Learning Platform offer several services to local and regional policy makers to help solve policy challenges. Matchmaking sessions are a great way to get new ideas and solutions for your own challenge. It’s a two-hour meeting with European peers, organised and facilitated by our experts. Knowing what others implemented as policy solutions can help greatly in finding effective responses to the needs of your territory, and to better manage your regional policy. They also offer a policy help desk and peer review.

The first Interreg Euro-MED Programme call for governance projects is open until May, 24th at noon (Brussels time).
The European Territorial Cooperation Programme that aims to make the Mediterranean region smarter and greener is targeting actions that support better cooperation governance. The call addresses two types of projects: thematic community projects and institutional dialogue projects, two major areas for colleagues from the public, cooperative, and social housing sector. Have a look. Get in touch with Edit Lakatos if you plan to apply.

Beneficiaries

Interreg Europe targets regional policy actors. This target group includes national, regional and local authorities as well as other relevant bodies responsible for the definition and implementation of regional development policiess.

As a general rule the beneficiaries of the programme are public bodies and bodies governed by public law. Private non-profit bodies may also be beneficiaries under certain conditions. Detailed provisions will be outlined in the programme manual. Private companies, especially SMEs, are an important target group in the context of several supported specific objectives and when relevant they are encouraged to participate in the activities of Interreg Europe actions and benefit from the exchange of experience, although they cannot directly receive EU funding as a beneficiary.

Interregional Innovation Investment Instrument 

The Interregional Innovation Investment Instrument is included in the ERDF Regulation and consists of two strands. The first strand focuses on investments in interregional projects, whereas the second strand supports the development of value chains in less developed regions.

A small budget allocation is dedicated to capacity building, not addressed to public administrations. The new Instrument and Interreg Europe do not overlap, as their objectives and scopes differ.

Policy learning Platform

Interreg Europe will support a Policy Learning Platform to facilitate policy learning and capitalisation of regional policy good practices on an ongoing basis.

The aim of the platform is to enable regional policy actors to tap into relevant experiences and practices whenever they need them to strengthen their institutional capacity in view of the improvement of their regional development policies, including programmes for Investment in jobs & growth.

It supports:

  • networking and exchange of experience by building on the results of interregional cooperation projects of the previous programming periods.
  • the development of policy learning and to synergies with other relevant initiatives, in particular other existing platforms addressing similar topics and target audiences. Expert support for policy learning (e.g. policy helpdesk, peer reviews)
  • Good practice database
  • Community of peers – networking opportunities between regional policy actors
  • Knowledge hub – access to knowledge on specific policy areas (e.g. policy briefs, webinars, reports, other platforms)

More detailed arrangements regarding the activities and services as well as the organisational structure of the platform will be elaborated in the programme manual.

Database

Interreg Europe database gathers data on regional development practices.

Final programme text coming in June 2021.

What INTERREG for housing? Some past examples: