On July 2nd the final Interreg Aurora 2021-2027 programme draft was submitted for approval to the Swedish, Finnish and Norwegian governments. The overall goal of the Interreg Aurora programme is to encourage cross-border collaboration, thereby strengthening the programme area’s competitiveness, sustainability and attractiveness through social inclusion, digitalization and green transition. The proposal is that Interreg Aurora will support development in the following four priorities:
– Smart and sustainable growth (PO1 – A smarter Europe)
– Green and sustainable transition (PO2 – A greener Europe)
– Education, culture and sustainable tourism (PO4- A more social Europe)
– Better and more sustainable cross-border governance (ISO1 – Better cooperation governance)
Over the last year, representatives of 10 regions and the Sámi Parliaments from Sweden, Finland and Norway have worked intensively and been actively involved in the preparation of the programme draft, together with the Managing Authority. The programme coordinators have ensured that the writing have progressed according to schedule. The Joint Programming Committee have had seven meetings so far. It has been challenging not being able to meet physically and learn to know each other, due to the pandemic. All preparation work and programming has been done digitally which after all, have worked well.
Interreg Aurora is the only new programme in the Interreg Community 2021-2027 and the only programme with a new extended programme area. Stakeholders have been able to share their opinion and contribute to the future Interreg Aurora programme through a stakeholder forum, web surveys and public hearings. The Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of the Interreg Aurora Programme was finalized in June 2021. The overall objective of the SEA is to better integrate aspects of environment and sustainability in the programme. Also, a comprehensive socio-economic overview/analysis of the regions including Sápmi has been produced during the programming.
The Managing Authority team continues the work with different questions concerning the future management and implementation of the Interreg Aurora programme during the coming autumn. The Managing Authority is preparing new simplifications for the project actors/beneficiaries and the aim is to launch the first call in the beginning of 2022.
When the governments have approved the programme draft it will be submitted to the European Commission in the autumn 2021. There has been an overwhelming interest for Interreg Aurora during the programming, thank you all for your great contributions!
Interreg Aurora Final DraftLadda ner
For more information about Interreg Aurora