On September 26, the Annual Conference of the Joint Operational Programme Romania-Ukraine-Republic of Moldova took place in Iaşi. The event was attended by guests from the three partner countries and from the European Commission.
During their speeches, the representatives of delegations from Romania, Ukraine and Republic of Moldova pointed out the importance of this Programme for the development of close relationships among the communities placed on the border of the three countries, reminding of a series of important projects for the region, from the perspective of economic, as well as cultural development and preservation of historical heritage. Also, the speakers underlined the advantage that this partnership-based financing formula brings forward, due to the support that the Romanian organizations, an EU Member State, may provide to those partners who are still in the incipient phase in terms of implementation of projects with European funding. The European Commission representative stated that the efforts made by the Programme management structures have been successful so far, as the progress of the Programme is deemed to be positive.
The Joint Managing Authority presented the public with the achievements of the Programme throughout the last year, among which: contracting available funding up to a 100% and making payments to projects up to 50% from the total Programme allocation. Also, the beneficiaries of three large infrastructure projects currently under implementation (East Avert, the Iaşi-Ungheni gas pipeline and the SMURD project) and the project leader of a people-to-people project reviewed the current stage of implementation for their projects, their key objectives and the added value for the communities within the Programme area.
Also, the MDRAP representative, the structure that will be hosting the future Managing Authorities for the next cross-border cooperation programmes during the period spanning from 2014-2020, presented the participants with information on their bilateral structure (Romania-Ukraine and Romania-Republic of Moldova), the programmes’ area and the estimated financial allocations.
The materials presented during the conference can be downloaded here.
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