Interreg NEXT Black Sea Basin Programme Project Implementation Training Held in Istanbul

In the first call for proposals of the Interreg NEXT Black Sea Basin Programme, of which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Directorate for EU Affairs is the National Authority, Türkiye was the country with the highest number of project applications selected and awarded with the biggest amount of grant. The Project Implementation Training for the beneficiaries of the first call started with the opening speeches of Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Director for EU Affairs Ambassador Mehmet Kemal Bozay and Ambassador of Romania to Ankara Ştefan Tinca.

Project implementation training was organized for project beneficiaries under the first call – with a budget of 35 million Euros – of the Interreg NEXT Black Sea Basin Programme, one of the Cohesion Policy and Neighborhood Policy instruments of the European Union. The event was also attended by representatives of the Romanian Ministry of Development, Public Works and Administration, which is the Managing Authority of the Programme, the Joint Secretariat, the TESIM-Technical Assistance Project of the  EU Commission for Interreg programmes, and the Delegation of the European Union to Türkiye.

Highlighting Türkiye’s success in his speech and addressing the representatives from beneficiary institutions, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Director for EU Affairs Ambassador Mehmet Kemal Bozay Programme expressed that our Directorate  aims to further increase the rate of utilisation of Türkiye from the funds under Interreg NEXT Black Sea Basin Programme with support of Turkish beneficiary institutions.

Ambassador of the Romanian to Ankara, Mr. Stefan Tinca also emphasized success of Türkiye in the programme. He said that under the first call, there were 10 joint projects with Turkish and Romanian partners and that these projects contribute to improve the cooperation between the two countries. Ambassador Tinca also stated that the Programme support the welfare of the countries in the Black Sea Basin.

The event, which took place with the participation of diplomats from Programme countries, continued with training sessions for project beneficiaries after the opening speeches. During the two-day training, the beneficiaries were informed on the Programme rules, management structures, verification of project expenditures and control processes, main grant contract provisions and changes to the application forms, using JEMS for reporting, financial management, employing staff, daily allowances, status of civil servants, procurement rules and templates, taxation and customs procedures for procurement, communication and visibility rules¸ capitalization, sustainability and synergy. Within the scope of the training, a visit was also made to the CREA-CENTERS project, one of the projects successfully implemented in the 2014-2020 period. During the visit where the experiences of the project beneficiary Çekmeköy Municipality were shared, the project beneficiaries of the 2021-2027 period found answers to their questions regarding the execution process of their projects.