Using regional ERDF to develop blue transnational projects

On 27^th April 2017, a transnational workshop dealing with the use of structural funds for transnational cooperation was organised in Malmö (Sweden) in the framework of the Smart Blue Regions project.  

Participants included:

• Representatives of the Managing Authorities (MA) for the European Regional Development Funds (ERDF) that cooperate in a network in the Baltic Sea Region (the MA Network),
• Smart Blue Regions partners and
• The European Union Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR) Policy Area Coordinator for Innovation (PA Inno)

All the ERDF Managing Authorities pointed out the very low amount of transnational projects being financed with regional ERDF funding – even though this possibility is explicitly foreseen in the Common Provisions Regulation of the EU.

During the workshop the MA Network presented its general objective: to lay the administrative and legal basis for the transnational usage of regional ERDF. In order to pilot the mechanisms the MA Network intends to organise transnational pilot calls for projects. The first one, dealing with clean tech, will be organised within the next months.  A subsequent “blue growth call” could be prepared by the Smart Blue Regions project later this year.