News

The European Commission has launched a Call for Evidence to support the development of a new Joint Communication, outlining the EU’s strategic approach to the Black Sea. The initiative responds to the region’s changing landscape, with a focus on enhancing security, stability and resilience.

The European Commission is inviting contributions from civil society, academia, think-tanks, regional partners and other interested stakeholders to help shape EU policy responses to the complex developments in the Black Sea region and for reinforcing the EU’s commitment to peace, cooperation and sustainable development.

Submissions can be made via Have Your Say portal until 5^th of May, 2025.

For details and to participate access the foregoing INITIATIVE PAGE

During the third meeting of the Monitoring Committee (MC) of the Interreg NEXT Black Sea Basin Programme, held on 9-10 April, 2025 in Thessaloniki, the final results of the assessment of applications submitted during the second calls for proposals for regular and small-scale projects were approved, taking also into consideration the Programme available funds.

Following the MC decision, all the applicants were notified on the final results of the assessment and the next steps, indicating if their applications have been:

• provisionally selected – those applications which are recommended for funding and which shall be contracted providing that all conditions laid down in Part IV – Assessment, Selection and Contracting of the Guidelines for Grant Applicants, Second Calls for Proposals are complied with;

       or

• recommended for the reserve list – those applications which obtained the minimum scores, but for which there are no available funds left under these calls for proposals, following the ranking of the applications;

      or

• rejected – those applications which obtained scores below the minimum ones set out in the Quality assessment grids.

Below is the main synthesis of the projects provisionally selected for financing.

The European Commission is preparing for the next multiannual financial framework, the EU's long-term budget, which will start in 2028. In this context, seven public consultations are launched and active until 6 May 2025 to gather views from interested parties on how to make the most of the EU budget:

• Implementing EU Funds with Member States and regions – shared management;
• EU funding for competitiveness for example Horizon Europe;
• EU funding for external action – NDICI, IPA;
• EU funding for cross-border education, training and solidarity, youth, media, culture, and creative sectors, values, and civil society  for example Erasmus, Creative Europe etc;
• EU funding for civil protection, preparedness and response to crises for example EU Civil Protection Mechanism; 
• EU funding for the single market, and cooperation between national authorities  single market programme;
• Performance of the EU budget.

The categories of the participants can be:

• EU citizen
• Academia/research institution
• Company/Businesses
• Non-EU citizens
• NGOs
• Public authorities
• Others

More information on the key messages & actions for the Interreg stakeholders, as prepared by Interact, may be consulted HERE

The Guide for control has been revised, in order to take into account the provisions of the new Financial Regulation, 2024/2509. Also, a few adjustments were made considering the lessons learnt of the verification of first reports submitted by project Partners.

The new version is uploaded in the website section Programme Documents – IMPLEMENTATION – Guide for Control - Update April 2025 (https://blacksea-cbc.net/interreg-next-bsb-2021-2027/programme-documents).

Monitoring Committee’s 3^rd meeting continued today, 10^th of April, 2025.

The representatives of the eight participating countries (Armenia, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, the Republic of Moldova, Romania, Türkiye and Ukraine), the European Commission, Managing Authority, Joint Secretariat and TESIM project discussed the progress of Programme implementation, the perspective of achieving the targets set for Programme indicators and how to maximize the use of EU funds.

An important item on the agenda was the presentation of Programme operations of strategic importance (OSI), which are the projects to provide a significant contribution to the achievement of Programme objectives. So far, two OSIs have been identified for the Interreg NEXT Black Sea Basin Programme: project BSB 26 Cooperation for wildfires community resilience capacity building and early warning in the Black Sea Basin and project BSB 193 Establishing and Operating an Innovative Marine Technology Transfer Network for Enhancing the Transition to a Sustainable Blue Economy in the Black Sea Basin. 

During the MC meeting, the representative of project BSB 193, Prof. Georgios Sylaios presented the project and its main traits, describing how it will develop a cost-effective, technologically advanced network of marine monitoring platforms, that will connect the Black Sea Basin and the North Aegean Sea, collecting data on marine biodiversity and assessing the impact of human activities on benthic ecosystems.

During 9-10 April, 2025, in Thessaloniki, Greece, takes place the third meeting of the Interreg NEXT Black Sea Basin Programme Monitoring Committee.

Today, 9^th of April, the Monitoring Committee approved new projects to be funded under the Interreg NEXT Black Sea Basin Programme, after the assessment of the applications submitted within the second calls for project proposals and also taking into consideration the use of Programme available funds.

In total, 52 projects have been approved (28 regular and 24 small-scale), with a total value of EU Interreg funding of 46.6 million Euros.

Congratulations to all 224 partners from all participating countries for their efforts in developing good projects!

Information on the results of the assessment process will be communicated soon to all applicants.

Procurement Fiche has been updated, in order to clarify the provisions related to the audit trail in Jems and also to take into account the provisions of the new Financial Regulation, 2024/2509.

The updated document may be checked in the website sections dedicated to Fiches and to Programme documents (Implementation sub-section).  

We are excited to share the release of our new flipbook with you! Featuring the Interreg NEXT Black Sea Basin projects this digital publication provides a detailed overview of the projects funded under the programme, highlighting their objectives and impact across the Black Sea region.

For 35 years, Interreg has represented a cornerstone of European integration, promoting cross - border, transnational, interregional and outermost region cooperation to drive growth, innovation, and inclusion in all regions of Europe.

European unity is more important than ever before. The question of how to reinforce the European continent in the face of threats to its stability appears almost daily.