On the 15 April 2003, on behalf of the BSR INTERREG III B Steering Committee, the Joint Secretariat made the decisions on approval of project applications of the third call for seed money project proposals.

 

For your early information we are pleased to let you know that the project East-West Forum for sustainable development in the BSR is approved and will be co-financed from the BSR INTERREG III B ERDF funds with a maximum amount of EUR 5,000.

 

The project takes on development of improved participation among stakeholders in North West Russia, which is considered of high importance and an encouraging focus of the programme. The strive for involvement of public, private and non-profit actors from local, regional and national level into the project is interesting and promising for the further BSR integration. However, at the moment there is no clear focus on what topics are the most interdependently interesting (east-west) and of obvious transnational relevance. This must be broadly described and clearly specified during the seed money project. The success of the project is also dependent on a strategically and well composed partnership. In some of the participating countries the envisaged partnership is well-defined but in others (Member States) it is still some strong partners from various sectors that have to be involved. It is an advantage that the projects strives to find synergy with other projects in the area and also develop links to relevant European policy documents that are promoting further integration in the BSR. It is additionally important that the project undertakes activities in the seed money project to prepare further co-operation by all possible co-ordination between different financial instruments.

 

At present the Activity Plan for Seed Money Project preparation and forming the partners network and field of cooperation are underway for following preparation of Main Project and submission of the Application within fifth BSR Interreg III B Call in January, 2004.

 

Proposals on cooperation within the Project you can send to Mrs. Elena Belova, Russian Project Coordinator. Contact information: ph. +7 (812) 319-9626, fax +7 (812) 319-9814, e-mail: belova@leontief.spb.su )