Looking for Partners for Interreg Central Europe on peripheral and lagging areas call for proposals
Hungarian Interchurch Aid (HIA) is looking for consortium partners to respond to the call for proposals of Interreg Central Europe for peripheral and lagging areas.
Specifically, HIA is interested in Programme Specific Objective (SO) 1.2 – Strengthening skills for smart specialisation, industrial transition and entrepreneurship. The target groups are (mostly) Roma communities living in peripheral/lagging areas of Hungary in extreme poverty and social professionals working with the Roma communities.
The overall objective of the call is to “pioneer solutions for peripheral and lagging areas, making them more attractive to live and work in”. Consequentially, the call has a territorial and thematic focus and will address small-scale projects. The indicative budget is around 14 million Euros ERDF. In this call, individual consultations with the joint secretariat are compulsory before submitting a proposal. The deadline for submitting proposals is on 10 December 2024.
HIA is one of Hungary’s largest internationally recognised charities. It is a strategic partner of the Government of Hungary and a qualified partner of the European Union’s Humanitarian Aid Fund, the Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (DG ECHO), and the UN agencies. HIA operates 50 social and protection institutions in fields such as combating domestic violence, child protection, providing comprehensive support to Ukrainian refugee people, providing comprehensive assistance for people affected by addictions, homeless people, and minority groups in lagging regions.
Interested organisations from the Interreg Central Europe countries: Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia can directly contact HIA: Edit Mester (edit.mester@hia.hu) / Gabor Balint (gabor.balint@hia.hu) / Gabor Boross (gabor.boross@hia.hu).
For more information about the call, please visit the call page here.
EU Parliament disagrees with EU Council’s 2025 budget proposal
The Parliament during its second October plenary in Strasbourg voted to confirm the Parliament’s position in relation to the EU Council’s proposed 2025 budget.
MEPs called for more funding amid the EU Council’s proposed EUR 1.52 billion cuts to key EU programmes such as Erasmus+ student mobility programme and the Horizon Europe research program.
The Parliament will meet with the Council and Commission representatives on 5 November to negotiate the final 2025 budget. It is expected that there will be intense discussions about paying interest rates incurred by the Recovery and Resilience Facility that have increased way beyond original forecasts. The Council on the other has taken the prudent approach, which some MEPs have termed as austerity measures, raising the issue of “source of additional financing” and indebtedness. The Parliament’s chief budget negotiator MEP Victor Negrescu (S&D/Romania) stressed that by cutting the budget, the European Union will not be able to deliver on citizens’ needs.
Sources: (1) Euronews (By Paula Soler & Video by Aida Sanchez Alonso), “EU Parliament and Council clash over €1.52bn ‘austerity’ cuts to 2025 budget” 23 October 2024 and (2) Think tank European Parliament, “Parliament’s reading of the 2025 EU budget”, 17 October 2024
EU’s LIFE Programme awards EUR 380 million to 133 new green projects
The European Commission announced on 21 October that the LIFE programme (EU’s funding instrument for the environment and climate action) has awarded more than EUR 380 million worth of projects in support of the European Green Deal and its broad range of climate, energy and environmental goals.
This amount represents more than half of the EUR 574 million investment needs for such projects.
The projects will cover all areas of the LIFE programme, mobilising:
- EUR 143 million (of which the EU will provide EUR 74 million) to contribute to a circular economy and improve quality of life, with 26 projects reducing water use, industrial and household waste, air and noise pollution, as well as making the business case for reducing, reusing and recycling;
- close to EUR 216 million (EUR 144.5 million EU contribution) for nature and biodiversity projects to restore freshwater, marine and coastal ecosystems, and habitats; and improve the conservation status of birds, insects, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals;
- some EUR 110 million (nearly EUR 62 million EU contribution) for climate resilience, climate mitigation and governance and information;
- EUR 105 million (EUR 99 million EU contribution) for governance and market solutions to accelerate the clean energy transition.
Source: European Commission. “EU invests over €380 million in 133 new LIFE projects to support the green transition all around Europe” 21 October 2024