On Thursday, December 17, the seventh meeting of the Joint Monitoring Committee of the Interreg-IPA Cross-border Cooperation Romania-Serbia Programme 2014-2020, coordinated by the Secretary of State Mr. Florin Cret, took place online.

During this meeting, topics related to the implementation of the current programme and the next funding period were discussed, as follows:

• The stage of implementation of the projects financed so far;

• The stage of implementation of the communication and the programme`s promotion activities;

• The stage of implementation of the recommendations from the Programme Evaluation Report;

• The stage of the programming process for the period 2021-2027;

During the discussions, the representatives of the Managing Authority highlighted the fact that blockages at programme level were avoided, despite the difficulties encountered in the implementation of the projects due to the Covid-19 health crisis and the restrictions imposed by this context. Thus, the Programme exceeded the estimates for the financial year 2020 on the amounts requested from the European Commission, meaning that 15.95 million euros were requested, therefore exceeding even the financial targets for next year.

73 projects have been contracted so far within the Interreg-IPA Cross-Border Cooperation Romania-Serbia Programme, with a total value of 86.61 million euros representing 98.28% of the programme budget.

The payments at the level of the programme are currently amounting to 43.06 million euros, representing 48.86% of the total budget of the programme, of which 14.18 million euros were paid during 2020.

Regarding the preparation of the IPA III Cross-Border Cooperation Romania-Serbia Programme for the period 2021-2027, during 2020 the second version of the Programme was developed and the list of projects of strategic importance and infrastructure was approved, which could receive funding under the future programme, making it one of the most advanced Interreg programmes in Europe.

In the period 2014-2020, the Ministry of Public Works, Development and Administration manages, as Managing Authority, the Interreg-IPA Cross-Border Cooperation Romania-Serbia Programme, which ensures the financing of cross-border cooperation projects in the Romanian-Serbian border area, with a total budget of 88 million euros.

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