2. Generation of project ideas and support to applicants

VASAB support to project generation Conclusions

VASAB has contributed effectively to the success of InterregIIC by enhancing:

  • involvement of partners from transition countries
  • generation of project themes relevant for the BSR.

This task assigned to VASAB by the Ministers responsible for spatial development at their Stockholm Conference in 1996 became particularly important with the launching of the EU InterregIIC programme:

  • Being a new programme, InterregIIC needed to be filled with an operational programme (OP). The VASAB2010 report was the main input to the OP for the Baltic Sea Region. CSD/BSR members and VASAB Secretariat staff contributed to the formulation of the OP, proposing key thematic issues and participating in the evaluation of incoming project applications.

  • Though the EU made arrangements for complementary funding from Phare resp. Tacis programmes in transition countries, this proved to be most difficult to achieve in practise. VASAB Secretariat provided advice to project applicants from transition countries, and helped to establish liaison with responsible Phare and Tacis bodies. This did not solve the problem,. But without VASAB involvement, shared Interreg - Phare - Tacis funding would have been achieved in only very few cases.

  • Local and regional authorities in transition countries are less familiar with possibilities and requirements for funding applications. VASAB took steps to disseminate such possibilities.

  • Finding partners across the EU borders was neither easy for applicants from EU countries, nor for those from transition countries. VASAB provided such contact services.

VASAB organised project generation seminars, inviting local and regional authority representatives from EU and transition countries. Participants presented project ideas and found partners interested in the same subject. VASAB Secretariat became a main resource for advice and information on appropriate project ideas, on InterregIIC and corresponding Phare and Tacis regulations, and on potential partners.

This process was supported by the earlier initiation of own VASAB 'projects'. As will be shown in chapter 3, most InterregIIC projects fall under themes promoted by VASAB. This indicates that VASAB's contribution to the Operational Programme of InterregIIC was useful and effective, and that local and regional actors (proposing such projects) confirm the importance of these themes.