The Forum on inter-regional cooperation organized by the European Commission and the Portuguese Presidency of the EU ends in Lisbon today. Its aim was to celebrate the success of the EU inter-regional programme Interreg IIIc and to officially launch the new programme Interreg IVc. Interreg is the financial instrument that the Commission places at the disposal of European local and regional authorities to support development and innovation projects in the field of trans-national, cross-border and inter-regional cooperation in a huge range of fields of activity. The new Interreg IVc – endowed with a budget of 321 million euros for the period 2007/2013 – is based on two priorities: innovation and knowledge-based economy (to which 55% of the funds are allocated); and environment and prevention of risks (39%). The remaining 6% is confined to activities of technical assistance. During the Forum, the over 2000 delegates met in work groups to establish partnerships between Regions and sub-regional authorities for the formulation and presentation of projects: the first calls for tenders should be published in the Official Gazette of the European Community in early October.
