Hungary-Croatia IPA Cross-border Co-operation Programme

Newsletter - March 2010

Second Anniversary of the Programme

The Hungary-Croatia IPA Cross-border Co-operation Programme 2007-2013 is approaching its second anniversary. With the first two years of the Programme behind us, and the first project cycle fully underway, what better occasion to look back and remember all that has been done so far.

Setting up joint structures

Drawing on the experience of the previous cross-border co-operation programmes, and the best practices from the past periods a new Programme was developed and the Hungary-Croatia IPA Cross-border Co-operation Programme 2007-2013 was approved by the European Commission on the 13th March 2008.

Setting up the Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC)

The Programme's decision making body, the Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC) was also set up by inviting the main programme actors- line ministries and the representatives of the concerned regions of both participating countries. Having its first statutory meeting on 10th June 2008, the JMC adopted its Rules of Procedures among other documents.

Creating the JTS team

In line with the Programme rules the programme co-ordination and implementation tasks were delegated to the Joint Technical Secretariat (JTS) set up inside a separate unit within Váti Nonprofit Kft. in Budapest and with the citizens of both countries- Hungary and Croatia.

Launching the First Call

The National Development Agency of Hungary and the Ministry of Regional Development, Forestry and Water Management of Croatia launched the first Call for Proposals of the Hungary-Croatia IPA Cross-border Co-operation Programme on 26th March 2009.

Kick-off Conference

First of those events, after launching the Call, was the Kick-off conference as the first communication milestone of the Programme. The conference was opened by Ms. Brigitta Zicherman-Mikulás, Head of the Managing Authority and Mr. János Benedek, CEO, Váti Nonprofit Kft., host institution of the Joint Technical Secretariat of the Programme.

Information Days

After launching first Call for proposals, seven Information days were held in the seats of all the eligible counties in Hungary and Croatia: Osijek (7 April 2009), Pécs (8 April 2009), Virovitica (9 April 2009), Kaposvár (15 April 2009), Zalaegerseg (16 April 2009), Koprivnica (22 April 2009) and Čakovec (23 April 2009).

Results of the First Call

The deadline set for 24th June 2009 met 67 project proposals (including the ones for the Action 1.2.1) with the requested amount of funding of 16.2 million € in total, among which the Joint Monitoring Committee selected 42 projects. The amount of Community funding to be awarded comprises 12.3 million euros.

Implementation

Various documents have been recently available on the Programme’s website
(www.hu-hr-ipa.com) for the Lead Beneficiaries and the Project Partners related to the implementation of the projects. Some of the documents are targeted to the project level, i.e. primarily to the Lead Beneficiaries (both in Hungary and in Croatia) and some of the documents exclusively for the project parts i.e. for the Project Partners (in Hungary or in Croatia).