Representatives of the EU and Russia on 21 September exchanged documents on the two sides’ approval of five ENPI programmes. That means that the programmes will come into force on the first day the following month, the Russian Ministry of Regional Development writes in a press release.
The exchange of the documents was made during the conference “Cross-Border Cooperation: Russian Federation, European Union and Norway”, an event which this year took place in Sankt Petersburg.
As previously reported, Russia in December 2009 signed the agreements and in June 2010 ratified them.
With the programmes in force, both the EU and Russia can start the financing of projects. From the Russian side, a total of 105 million EUR has been reserved the five programmes “Lituania-Poland-Russia”, “Estonia-Latvia-Russia”, “Southeast Finland-Russia”, “Karelia” and the “Kolarctic”.
It is the Ministry of Regional Development which is top responsible for the ENPI projects on the Russian side. The projects will the four years be a backbone in cooperation between Russia and the European Union. While Russia will spend 105 million EUR on the programmes, the EU will contribute with 120 million EUR.
Read more about the ENPI mechanism at Europa.eu
