On 16 March 2003, the European Commission launched the Communication on Wider Europe. Some months later, the European Commission proposed significant steps to improve the EU´s interventions at its external borders after enlargement. The concept of the Neighbourhood Programmes was then developed in the Communication of 1 July 2003 “Paving the Way for a New Neighbourhood Instrument”. It should cover the transition period 2004-2006 and are supposed to build on the experience from current cross-border and transnational cooperation programmes. The 2004-2006 Neighbourhood Programmes are intended to foster cooperation with neighbouring non-candidate countries through better co-ordination of existing instruments, i.e. INTERREG with Tacis CBC. They succeed the Tacis Cross-border cooperation Small Project Facility, which since 1996 has fostered cross-border relations between local, regional authorities and NGOs.
The Implementing Guidelines for the Neighbourhood Programmes 2004 – 2006 (from June 11, 2004) stipulate that the joint structures are to be established and joint procedures to be
implemented for support of joint projects, combining the internal (INTERREG) and external ) funding (Tacis). All applicants that plan to request funding from the external funding (Tacis) to finance the activities of RU/BY partners involved in their projects must be familiar with the information provided there.
Source: Baltic Sea Region INTERREG III B Neighbourhood Programme – PROGRAMME MANUAL Eighth call for project proposals 25 July – 23 September 2005.
More information of the BSR INTERREG III B Neighbourhood Programme can be found from their website http://www.spatial.baltic.net/.