A cabinet press release confirms that the government in a meeting 2 October formally approved five of the seven projected ENPI CBC cooperation programmes with the EU. The programmes, which are to help stimulate cross-border project cooperation between the parts, on the Russian side has a total cost frame of 111 million EUR. The EU is allocating about 230 million EUR to the project cooperation.
The programmes approved are the Kolarctic, Karelia, the Southeast Finland-Russia, the Lithuania-Poland-Russia programmes, as well as the Estonia-Latvia-Russia programme. Among the programmes is however not the Baltic Sea CBC, which was originally to be signed by 31 December 2008.
It remains unclear why the Baltic Sea CBC is not included in the list of approved programmes. With Sweden fronting the EU Council, it is however likely that the programme will eventually be approved in the course of this fall. The EU-Russia November top meeting in Stockholm could possibly be the event for a positive programme announcement. An announcement might also come already this week, when Sweden Card Bildt meets Russia’s Sergei Lavrov in Murmansk for a session in the Barents Euro-Arctic Council.
As BarentsObserver there has been increasing worries in several EU countries that the financial crisis could hamper the implementation of the EU-Russia cross-border programmes.
The ENPI CBC programmes are among the EU’s main cooperation tools with neighboring countries in Eastern Europe and North Africa. Russia is included in seven of the programmes, among them the Baltic Sea CBC and the Kolarctic programme. Both of the two programmes include more than 20 million EUR in cross-border project money.
Originally, Russia has committed itself to contribute with 111 million EUR to the seven programmes over the period 2007-2013.
