Ukraine: €26.2 million initially planned for Russia and Belarus will be transferred to strengthen cooperation with Ukraine and Moldova

Today, the Commission proposes to transfer €26.2 million of the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation instrument, originally planned for 2021-2027 Interreg NEXT programmes with Russia and Belarus, to the same programmes with Ukraine and Moldova. Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Elisa Ferreira, said: "Ukraine and Moldova are trusted partners of the EU and the EU is strongly committed to long term cooperation with them. Bringing people living on both sides of the external border of the EU closer to each other and strengthening the collaboration between EU regions and local stakeholders with Ukrainian and Moldovan partners is a concrete step to foster peace and security in the region." Concretely, this funding may support the development of health services, reinforce institutional capacity of the Ukrainian and Moldovan public authorities, develop education and research projects, or finance social inclusion schemes and job training programmes for refugees. Following the Russian military aggression against Ukraine and in line with the measures adopted by the EU, in March 2022 the Commission has suspended the cooperation with Russia and its ally Belarus in the European Neighbourhood Instrument cross-border cooperation programmes (ENI CBC) and in the Interreg Baltic Sea region programme. As a result, four cross-border Interreg programmes involving Ukraine and Moldova, Hungary/Slovakia/Romania/Ukraine, Poland/Ukraine, Romania/Moldova, Romania/Ukraine - and two transnational programmes - the Danube Transnational Programme and Interreg NEXT Black Sea Basin - will benefit from 68% increased funding for the year 2022. (For more information: Stefan De Keersmaecker – Tel.: +32 229 84680; Veronica Favalli)