Author: groteski

The Managing Authority (MA), assisted by its branch office, has completed the administrative and eligibility compliance checks for the 34 applications submitted for the Call 4, closed on 15 June 2018. Those applications that passed the checks are forwarded for the quality assessment that is foreseen to be completed by the end of November. The final decision of the awards will be taken by the Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC) in December 2018. 

The results of the check are recorded in the PROMAS for each application and it is visible for the applicants as the current status-information. In case the application is rejected, the lead partner may submit an inquiry for the Managing Authority to get further information. Use the official email official[@]sefrcbc.fi to contact the MA.  

Official decision, Executive order, of the selection process is sent to each lead applicant in January 2019 after the JMC meeting.

The Cross-Border Cooperation programmes South-East Finland – Russia, Kolarctic and Karelia implemented between Russia, Finland, and the North Calotte become fully operational from the 1 October 2018 onwards, now that the official procedures in connection to the ratification of the Financing Agreements are completed. This means that from that date, the Managing Authorities of the programmes may sign Grant Contracts with the awarded projects, which have been waiting to launch their actions.  

The programming phase, started already in May 2013, has been relatively long and faced quite many challenges. However, in terms of regional development and national strategies, it has been remarkable that the Cross-Border Cooperation initiative has been handled outside and independent of political decisions and sanctioning.    

By maintaining a dialog between the programmes’ stakeholders in the European Commission, Finland and Russia, the programmes are able to guarantee operational status and key priorities in the cooperation between the European Union and the Russian Federation. By implementing the joint projects, the programmes are able to solve challenges that note no geographical borders. “Launching of the European union co-funded cross-border cooperation programmes will open lot of opportunities for the development of the border regions in Finland and Russia”, states Petri Haapalainen, ministerial adviser from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment of Finland.  

Funding for cross-border cooperation  

Karelia and South-East Finland are cross-border cooperation programmes implemented in Finland and Russia. Kolarctic involves regions also from Sweden and Norway. The programmes manage operations in their eligible areas covering the whole ca. 1340 kilometers borderline between Finland and Russia.  

By today, the programmes’ Joint Monitoring Committees have approved in total 66 standard development projects for funding, and also, 13 micro-projects in Karelia. The progammes have also short-listed those Large Infrastructure Projects, which are currently in the further assessment phase in the European Commission. The financing of the three programmes is in total € 178 million, which consist of funding from the European Union, Russia and Finland, and in the case of Kolarctic, also Sweden and Norway. The funded projects can be carried out until the end of 2022.  

The programmes involve actions such as support to development of business and SMEs, accessibility of the regions, environmental protection and fighting challenges with climate change. Culture, education, research and innovations are crossing themes in each programme. Safety and security as well as the development of fluent mobility are also supported at the border-crossing points and water areas.  

Some funding is still available for new ideas and the last Calls for Proposals will be arranged in 2019. More information of the projects that have received awards, and up-coming or running opportunities to apply for funding are available via following links:  

South-East Finland – Russia CBC: http://www.sefrcbc.fi
Kolarctic CBC: http://kolarctic.info
Karelia CBC: http://www.kareliacbc.fi/en  

 

Additional information: 

South-East Finland – Russia CBC
Acting Programme Director Tiina Jauhiainen
tiina.jauhiainen(at)sefrcbc.fi 

Karelia CBC
Programme Director Marko Ruokangas
marko.ruokangas(at)kareliacbc.info 

Kolarctic CBC
Programme Manager Riikka Oittinen
riikka.oittinen(at)lapinliitto.fi

Managing Authority office in Lappeenranta and branch office in Saint Petersburg are closed for 21-23 August, due to ENI CBC programmes’ Northern Cluster networking and training event.  We regret any inconvenience, and will return to all inquiries at latest on our return to offices.

CBC-Team

 

The Financing Agreement (FA) that sets the legal base for Financing and Implementing of the South-East Finland – Russia CBC 2014-2020 programme has now been ratified in Russia and Finland. In accordance with the Implementing Regulations, the Agreement enters into force on the first day of the second month after the European Commission receives the respective notifications. In practice, this means that the force date will be 1 October 2018 and after that, the Managing Authority may prepare and sign the Grant Contracts with the lead partners of the awarded projects.  

As part of the contracting procedure, the Managing Authority organise so called kick-off meetings to communicate with each project partner and to present the requirements and instructions in connection to project implementation. Meetings are aimed also to support efficient launching of the funded actions. First invitations will be send by the end of August and the first meetings are scheduled for the second half of September in Lappeenranta and St. Petersburg. 

The Managing Authority has published first full version of the Programme Manual  that covers instructions for applying funding, information of the project evaluation and selection and implementation of the funded project. The manual is also renewed visually with colour codes that help browsing the content. The document is published in pdf-file and by using the bookmarks, the content is available on the left side bar. 

Publication dated 20/07/2018 replace the previous versions. Finnish and Russian translations of the manual will be available by the end of September latest. 

Programme Manual – SEFR CBC 2014-2020_Full version 0.1_English

The South-East Finland – Russia CBC 2014-2020 Programme has organised four rounds of calls and two finalized project selection procedures so far. 20 projects have been selected for funding and the grant contract negotiations with some lead partners have been already carried out successfully and with some, the process is on-going. 

The work plan of the Managing Authority (MA) was just approved by the Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC) for the next accounting year, starting as of 1 July 2018,  and the preparation of the awarded projects’ kick-off meetings is launched. Projects selected from the call 1 will receive the invitation, with the information of the meeting content, by the end of August and the sessions are scheduled from the end of September onwards.  

It is foreseen, that all projects awarded so far will be contacted for the kick-off in 2018. Projects may be granted and launched once the Financing Agreement (FA) of the programme is ratified and the European Commission has received the respective notifications. According with the current information, the process will be finalized during the fall. More information of the process will be available after the summer break. 

Information of the awarded projects at INFORMATION SERVICE 

Fourth round of call of the South-East Finland – Russia CBC 2014-2020 was closed on 15 June 2018 with 34 applications, which are important validation of interest and of great amount of preparation work that are appreciated by the Programme management bodies. 

Administrative and Eligibility check to each application package will be conducted by the Managing Authority (MA) assisted by its Branch Office (BO). This process starts immediately and is foreseen to be finalised by mid August. All lead applicants are kindly reminded that one original paper-document package must be delivered to MA’s office in Lappeenranta by the end of June. So far, the Programme has processed four calls and at least one more round is foreseen in 2019. Information about up-coming opportunity to apply for funding is communicated in September 2018, latest. 

For more information of the calls and awards go to INFORMATION SERVICE

PROMAS service is unavailable during the scheduled maintenance update from Friday 01/06/2018, 8:00 am to Monday 04/06/2018, 8:00 am. During this time the users cannot log in to the system or process any functions.

Additional information:
Pasi Sormunen
email: pasi.sormunen[at]sefrcbc.fi
tel.: +358 40 667 3958

South-East Finland – Russia CBC 2014–2020 Programme’s third call was closed on 28 March 2018 with 32 submitted project proposals. Administrative and eligibility compliance check, conducted by the Managing Authority and its Branch Office, is now completed and the results are recorded in the PROMAS for each application. The result is visible for the lead applicant by updated status information. In case the application was rejected, the lead applicant may submit an inquiry for further information to the Managing Authority by using the email official(at)sefrcbc.fi. 

The project proposals that passed the first checks, are forwarded for the quality assessment and the final decisions of the funded projects will be taken by the Joint Monitoring Committee in September 2018. The short-list of awarded projects will be published at the Programme’s website soon after the meeting. Official decision (Executive Order) to each lead applicant is mailed in October 2018, supported with more detailed award-list of selected projects made available at the Programme website.