• 4

    Participating countries

  • 8

    Core regions

  • 1.2

    Million km2 Land area

  • 2.9

    Million people

  • 63.4

    Million budget

Vision & Strategy

Vision for the Programme:

Kolarctic CBC programme area is a flourishing, environmentally friendly and diverse area with viable economy, fluent mobility of people, ideas and technologies, and where people-to-people cooperation is an essential value.

Overall objective of the Kolarctic CBC:

is to promote a viable economy and the attractiveness of the region, where inhabitants and visitors are able to enjoy the arctic nature and where the natural resources are used in a sustainable way.

ENI CBC strategic objectives for CBC activities:

  • Promote economic and social development in regions on both sides of common borders
  • Address common challenges in environment, public health, safety and security
  • Promote better conditions and modalities for facilitating the mobility of persons, goods and capital

Priority axes & Thematic objectives

The Programme has awarded grants to projects that contribute to achieving the Programme’s priorities and objectives.

Priority axis 1

Viability of arctic economy, nature and environment

Thematic objectives

  • TO1 Business and SME development

  • TO6 Environmental protection, climate change adaptation and mitigation

Priority axis 2

Fluent mobility of people, goods and knowledge

Thematic objectives

  • TO1 Business and SME development

  • TO6 Environmental protection, climate change adaptation and mitigation

  • TO7 Improvement of accessibility to the regions, development of sustainable and climate-proof transport and communication networks and systems

  • TO10 Promotion of border management and border security, mobility and migration management

The common focus of any action carried out with the support of the Programme is on cross-border cooperation, environmental sustainability and gender equality.

Budget

 

Kolartic Budget

The total budget of the Kolarctic CBC 2014-2020 is 63 436 180 €.

The indicative allocation of the budget:

24 718 090 € European Union funding
7 000 000 € Norwegian equivalent funding
12 359 045 € National co-financing from EU Member States (Sweden and Finland)
12 359 045 € National co-financing from Russia
7 000 000 € National co-financing from Norway

Programme area

The European Commission has suspended the participation of the Russian Federation in the implementation of the cross-border cooperation programmes between the European Union and Russia, starting from March 3, 2022. Due to this, the Russian programme areas do not participate in the Programme starting from March 3, 2022.

Core regions:

Finland: Lapland
Sweden: Norrbotten
Norway: Finnmark, Troms, Nordland
 Russia: Murmansk Region, Arkhangelsk Region,
Nenets Autonomous District (until suspension in March, 2022)
   

Adjoining regions:

Finland: Oulu Region
Sweden: Västerbotten
Russia: Republic of Karelia, Republic of Komi (until suspension in March 2022)
   

Major social, economic and cultural centre:

Russia: City of St. Petersburg (until suspension in March 2022)

beac_map_separate_regions_vedos4

Programme implementation

Kolarctic CBC has launched 3 Calls for Proposals for Standard projects and 1 Call for Proposals for Micro projects. During the programme period, three Large Insfrastructure Projects (LIPs) have been approved to be financed.

  • 2023-2024
  • 2020-2022
  • 2016-2019
  • 2012-2015

2023-2024

2023:

20-21 June: 15th meeting of Joint Monitoring Committee of Kolarctic CBC 2014-2020 will be held in Norway.

2020-2022

2022:

1-2 December: 14th meeting of Joint Monitoring Committee of Kolarctic CBC 2014-2020 was held in Helsinki

9-10 June: 13th meeting of Joint Monitoring Committee of Kolarctic CBC 2014-2020 was held online and onsite in Rovaniemi.

3 March:  The European Commission has suspended the Financing Agreement between the European Commission and the Russian Federation concerning the European Neighbourhood Instrument cross-border cooperation programmes (ENI CBC). 

 

2021:

3 June: 11th meeting of Joint Monitoring Committee of Kolarctic CBC 2014-2020 was held online.

2 December: 12th meeting of Joint Monitoring Committee of Kolarctic CBC 2014-2020 was held online.

 

2020:

3 February – 31 March: the 4th Call for Proposals is open. Thematic Objectives TO1 and TO6 are open for micro-projects proposals.

23 June: 9th meeting of Joint Monitoring Committee of Kolarctic CBC 2014-2020 was held online. In the meeting, the JMC made selections on the applications of the 4th Call for Proposals.

17 December: 10th meeting of Joint Monitoring Committee of Kolarctic CBC 2014-2020 was held online.

 

 

2016-2019

2019:

11-12 April: 7th meeting of Joint Monitoring Committee of Kolarctic CBC 2014-2020 was held in Stockholm, Sweden. In the meeting, the JMC handled applications of the 3rd Call for Proposals.

26 November:8th meeting of the Joint Monitoring Committee of Kolarctic CBC 2014-2020, Luleå Sweden.

 

2018:

24 April: 5th meeting of Joint Monitoring Committee of Kolarctic CBC 2014-2020 in Rovaniemi, Finland

21 September – 21 December: The 3rd Call for Proposals is open. All thematic objectives of the programme are open for project proposals. The JMC encourages applications especially to Thematic Objectives TO 7 and TO 10.

1 October: The Managing Authority and the Lead Partners of the projects approved during the 1st and 2nd Calls for Proposals have the first possibility to start signing Grant Contracts. The first projects can start their activities in October.

29 November: 6th meeting of Joint Monitoring Committee of Kolarctic CBC 2014-2020 in Helsinki, Finland

 

2017:

23 January – 15 March 2017: 1st Call for Proposals is open

8-9 June: 3rd meeting of Joint Monitoring Committee of Kolarctic CBC is held 2014-2020 in Oslo, Norway. The JMC approves 11 applications from the 1st Call for Proposals.

26 June – 29 September: 2nd Call for Proposals is open

7-8 December: 4th meeting of Joint Monitoring Committee of Kolarctic CBC 2014-2020 is held  in Troms, Norway. The JMC approves 7 applications from the 2nd Call for Proposals.

 

2016:

The Russian Federation and European Commission have been negotiating about the programme, its financing and implementation. The deadline for their signing a Financing Agreement on EU-Russia programmes is on 31st December, 2016.

9 June: 1st meeting of Joint Monitoring Committee of Kolarctic CBC 2014-2020 in Murmansk, Russia

27-28 October: 2nd meeting of Joint Monitoring Committee of Kolarctic CBC 2014-2020 in St.Petersburg, Russia

According to an indicative work programme of the Managing Authority, the 1st Call for Proposals will be open on 23 January and closed on 15 March 2017.

2012-2015

2015:

The Programming Committee has concluded its work and finalised a programme document proposal. The Managing Authority has submitted the proposal to the EU for handling and approval.

On 18th December 2015, the European Commission has approved the programme.

2014:

The programme document was drafted, and public hearings were carried out in each country.

2013:

The Kolarctic Programming Committee started its work and decided e.g. on: the Managing Authority and the Programme region.

Discussions were arranged in all countries between different administrative bodies and stakeholders about what needs to be done in cross border cooperation during the next years.

2012:

Working meetings were arranged between respective administrative bodies in EC, Sweden, Finland, Norway and Russia on the future programmes.

The EC confirmed the basic principles about how the programme regions would be established

Programme administration

The Managing Authority of Kolarctic CBC 2014-2020 is the Regional Council of Lapland in Rovaniemi (Finland). Programme’s branch offices are located in Luleå (Sweden), Vadsö (Norway) and Murmansk (Russia). The Programme has a Monitoring Committee consisting of 6 members from each participating country, totally 24 members. The Monitoring Committee follows up the implementation of the programme and e.g. makes the final decision about projects to be financed. Also Programme has one RAG in each participating country, and they assess all projects that have been submitted during the Call for Proposals.

Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC)

JMC is the main decision-making body of the Programme comprising representatives from all participating countries. It follows the implementation of the Programme on overall level and gives recommendations to the Managing Authority (MA) for the Programme implementation and evaluation. Further, the JMC is responsible for the evaluation and selection procedure applicable to projects to be financed by the Programme and approves the criteria for project selection.

Regional Assessment Groups (RAG)

RAGs are established in each participating country for evaluation of the project applications. The JMC makes the decision to establish RAGs. The members of each RAG are nominated by the respective participating country. External experts might be involved in the evaluation procedure if necessary.

National Authorities (NA)

NA’s are appointed to support the MA in the management of the Programme in accordance with the principle of sound financial management – budgetary principle according to which budget appropriations must be used according to economy, efficiency and effectiveness.

Managing Authority (MA)

MA has the responsibility for managing the Programme and for ensuring legality and regularity of its operations and that, decisions of the JMC comply with the regulations and provisions in force.

The MA draws up and launches the approved selection procedures and manages the project selection procedures, provides the Lead Partner with a document setting out the conditions for support for each project including the financing plan and execution deadline and signs contracts with Lead Partners. The MA with the staff of the Branch Offices (BOs) checks eligibility of the applications.

The Managing Authority of Kolarctic CBC 2014-2020 is the Regional Council of Lapland (Lapin Liitto) in Rovaniemi, Finland.

Branch Offices (BOs)

The staff of the BOs in Norway (Vadsø) and Sweden (Luleå) assists the MA in the projects´ administrative checks and provides additional support in providing information for the MA for administrative checks and for the RAGs for evaluation of quality and relevance.  

The Audit Authority (AA) and the members of the Group of Auditors (GoA)

The Control function of the Ministry of Finance (Finland) acts as the AA in the Programme. The AA ensures that audits are carried out on the management and control systems, on an appropriate sample of projects and on the annual accounts of the Programme. The AA will be assisted by a Group of Auditors (GoA) comprising a representative of each participating country in the Programme. The AA ensures that the audit work complies with internationally accepted auditing standards.

Control Contact Points (CCP)

The participating countries have appointed Control Contact Points (CCPs) for supporting the MA to fulfill its project level control and verification tasks. The CCPs provide information and clarifications for the MA on the national rules concerning audits or additional checks on projects.