Support to Ukraine and Moldova border regions

With this action, the local and regional authorities, municipalities, civil society organisations and other stakeholders will increase their capacities and knowledge in preparing and delivering cross-border cooperation projects. The stakeholders will gain experience with the EU cohesion policy approach towards regional development, and they will themselves implement a series of joint cross-border projects to improve the social, territorial and economic cohesion of the cross-border area between Ukraine and Moldova.

With this action there will be a significant number of cross-border cooperation projects of limited financial volume implemented on the border regions of Ukraine and Moldova that will deliver concrete activities for the local population.

The objective is to enhance administrative capacity of Ukrainian and Moldovan public sector authorities and civil society organisations from Ukraine and Moldova in the border area, through their active participation in a specific cross-border cooperation mechanism mirroring the selection and implementation of projects of limited financial volume under Article 25 of the Interreg Regulation (hereinafter ‘Interreg’).

The proposals submitted by the applicants to this call must ensure the objective is achieved via the establishment of a steering committee, in compliance with the partnership principle as defined in Article 8 of the Common Provisions Regulation (hereinafter ‘CPR’), which will in turn select projects of limited financial volume and provide sub-grants for their realisation (referred to as ‘financial support to third parties’ in section 6) for the development of cross-border cooperation between Ukraine and Moldova.

In this way, this technical assistance action will operate in a similar manner to an Interreg cross-border cooperation programme between Ukraine and Moldova.

The action aims at funding a) the establishment and functioning of an operational steering committee composed of relevant Ukrainian and Moldovan public sector authorities and civil society organisations; b) the delivery of tasks linked to the support of development of cross-border cooperation between Ukraine and Moldova; and c) the financial support to third parties for the delivery of projects.

The territorial scope of the action aims to cover the cross-border region between Moldova and Ukraine. This “cross-border area” will include the whole country of Moldova and the following oblasts of Ukraine: Chernivtsi, Khmelnytskyy, Vinnytsya, Odessa, and where justified, the following oblasts: Cherkassy, Kirovohrad, Mykolayiv. Third parties from other oblasts of Ukraine may participate in sub-grants provided that their contribution benefits the cross-border area as defined above.

The eligible themes related to the objectives of this call are those defined in the cohesion policy regulatory framework, namely the policy objectives listed in Article 5 CPR and the Interreg specific objectives in Article 14 Interreg Regulation.

Financial support to third parties shall be provided to the largest possible extent: the majority of projects should receive funding up to EUR 10,000, while a smaller number of projects, when justified by their nature and objectives, may be granted up to EUR 50,000. The number of projects in each group cannot be defined in advance, as it will be dependent on the project applications received.

The activities are mainly twofold: 1) establish a mechanism involving local and regional authorities, municipalities or civil society organisations from Ukraine and Moldova on an equal basis with the aim of selecting joint cross-border projects, 2) implement, monitor and promote the implementation of joint cross-border projects of limited financial volume.

The successful grant beneficiary will be expected to deliver the following activities:

• Activities related to the establishment of an organisational structure under the responsibility of the grant beneficiary that will implement the preparation, delivery, promotion and monitoring of cross-border cooperation projects between Ukraine and Moldova.
• Activities related to the establishment of a steering committee (mirroring the composition of monitoring committee in Interreg cooperation programmes as provided for in Article 29 Interreg).
• Communication activities linked to the publication of information on the possibility to receive support for joint projects in line with the decision of the steering committee.
• Activities related to the development of a detailed manual for applicants in the national languages that will include inter alia the scope of eligible activities, the procedure of project selection, the selection criteria, conditions for project implementation, monitoring and visibility.
• Activities related to continuous technical support to applicants during preparation of their cross-border project proposals with a view to developing joint Ukrainian and Moldovan projects having a cross-border impact benefitting the cross-border area as set out in section 2.
• Activities related to the preparation of the work of the steering committee, in particular the preparation of documents linked to the sub-granting (the drafting of the call for proposals with conditions for selection and funding; the publication of the call and the promotion/visibility of the call); the preparation for the assessment/evaluation of the submitted project proposals and check of their compliance with the predefined selection criteria, and the creation of a ranking list of projects that will be supported by the available budget; the conclusion of contracts with successful project partners and provision of the pre-determined financial support (payments) to third entities and arrangements to provide continuous support during implementation of projects, including meeting deadlines and delivering contractual outputs. This includes also the establishment of proper financial management procedures to ensure financial flows towards the selected project partners, control and audit of the use of EU funds.
• Activities related to the monitoring of implementation of the selected projects for sub-grants, the adequate audit trail and the final reporting on the implementation of this action.
• Production of analysis and publications for the dissemination of the results of the action, namely fostering its multiplication effect.