Interact Programme

The European Union is a mix of cultures and economies that will reach its full potential through mutual under-standing and close cooperation. That is why the European Union supports cooperation in many ways. One of them is Interreg, an initiative specifically dedicated to helping European regions work together to find solutions to common economic, environmental, social and cultural challenges. There are more than 100 Interreg programmes managing thousands of cooperation projects throughout Europe who are dealing with these issues. The Interact programme’s specific mission is to support these programmes in their daily work. So to help them successfully navigate the Interreg world, we provide advice, organise learning events and develop a wide range of tools on: • How to manage a European cooperation programme or project and comply with EU rules on finance and controls. • How to communicate funding opportunities, as well as programme and project results. • How to use new cooperation tools. We also harmonise processes to help programmes work more efficiently and to make the life of project applicants easier. We act as a hub to allow programmes to exchange experiences and network. Finally, we constantly explore and encourage innovative ways of cooperating in Europe by supporting macro-regional and sea basin strategies as well as legal structures and initiatives to facilitate cooperation activities. We are financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and by the 28 EU member states, Norway and Switzerland, and we have a total budget of 46 million EUR for the 2014-2020 period. We are part of the Interreg programmes – which are financed under the European Territorial Cooperation objective of the European Structural Funds - but we also support cooperation at the external borders of the EU (IPA/ENI CBC), as well as new forms of territorial cooperation.