Interreg is part of the European Union's structural and investment policy and promotes cooperation between regions in Europe. Its aim is to strengthen harmonious, balanced and sustainable development as well as cohesion and competitiveness in Europe. Interreg is implemented in four priority areas (so-called action areas), of which INTERREG A and B are relevant for Passau.
Interreg is in its 6th funding period. For this, 8.96 billion euros from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) are available from 2021 to 2027.
The European Territorial Cooperation includes three orientations:
- Interreg A: cross-border cooperation to promote integrated and harmonious regional development between neighboring regions with common land and sea borders.
- Interreg B: transnational cooperation between national, regional and local partners in transnational cooperation areas or around sea basins to increase the territorial integration of these areas
- Interreg C: interregional cooperation through cooperation networks and exchange of experiences to improve the effectiveness of existing instruments for regional development and cohesion. This program is not relevant for Passau.
Interreg A
For the University of Passau, two regional areas are again relevant under the INTERREG A strand. Here, funds amounting to 99 million and 61.5 million euros respectively are available for the improvement of cross-border cooperation:
Here again a distinction is made between
- People-to-people projects (p2p) (<5000 euro)
- Small projects (< 35.000 Euro)
- Medium projects (<100.000 Euro)
> These projects are supervised regionally by the Euregio.
- Large projects (>100.000 Euro)
> to the program website
Interreg B
Three program areas are relevant for the University of Passau. Funds of 143 million and 269 million and 281 million Euros respectively are available to strengthen territorial integration with regard to the European Green Deals.
Application process:
- The respective participating member states are responsible for the programs; the structure of the individual programme areas and the eligibility criteria therefore vary from one program area to another.
- For each program there is a common managing authority in one of the countries involved in the program.
- All the key information, contact details and downloads for the programme area can be found on the website linked above.
Design of the projects:
- The rules for application, funding and thematic orientation are laid down in the respective cooperation programs.
- Project development usually follows the "bottom-up" principle
- In each project, there is a leading partner, the so-called "lead partner"
