The European Commission has approved the Interreg VI-B NEXT “Mediterranean Sea Basin” (NEXT MED) transnational cooperation programme involving 15 countries for an amount of €253 million of EU funding.
Interreg NEXT MED aims to contribute to smart, sustainable, fair development across the Mediterranean basin by supporting balanced, long-lasting, far-reaching cooperation and multilevel governance.
The programme mission is to finance cooperation projects that address joint socio-economic, environmental and governance challenges at Mediterranean level such as the uptake of advanced technologies, competitiveness of SMEs and job creation, energy efficiency, sustainable water management, climate change adaptation, transition to a circular and resource efficient economy, education and training, health care, etc.
The global amount of the European Union contribution to the Programme is €253 million, including €230 million for project funding and €23 million for Technical Assistance (dedicated to management and implementation). The budget comes from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the Instrument for Pre-Accession (IPA III) and the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI). The maximum EU contribution per project will be 90% of its total cost, while at least a 10% co-financing shall be ensured by the project partnership.
The first call for proposals, which budget should be around €100 million is expected to be launched starting from mid-2023 and will tackle all Programme Priorities and Specific Objectives.
The cooperation area cover 15 countries: 13 of them which already participated in the previous editions of the programme – Cyprus, Egypt, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Jordan, Malta, Palestine, Portugal, Spain, Tunisia – and two new members, namely Algeria and Türkiye (Turkey).
