EU funds to promote cross-border business partnerships in the Mediterranean

The first call for standard projects under ENI CBC Med Programme – one of the EU’s territorial cooperation programmes – is now open.

The programme complements the EU’s Neighbourhood Policy by stimulating cooperation between southern European countries and Mediterranean countries in the Middle East and North Africa. The Neighbourhood Policy promotes cooperation with countries sharing land or sea borders with the EU, covering Eastern Europe, the southern Mediterranean and the Middle East.

The funding programme is divided into two overarching objectives: to promote economic and social development and to address common challenges in the environment. Under each overarching objective there are a number of thematic objectives, including one which focuses on businesses and entrepreneurship and another one which aims to strengthen and support networks, clusters, consortia and value-chains.

This priority aims to support projects promoting cross-border business partnerships and to pool expertise and knowledge. Support offered to businesses can include consultancy services as well as training or mentoring. Public-private partnerships are encouraged under this priority, meaning cooperation between public entities such as ministries and private entities such as businesses. This promotes the sustainability of projects while also combining the expertise of the private sector with the resources of the public sector.

Projects submitted under this priority can cover a wide spectrum of Mediterranean business sectors and are open to both traditional Mediterranean sectors such as tourism, textile and clothing as well as non-traditional sectors such as innovative solutions for urban development, ecohousing, blue technologies, sustainable water-related and other clean technologies, renewable energies and creative industries.

Standard projects should aim at piloting innovative ideas and would receive funding at a rate of 90% of eligible costs provided that the EU grant requested is of no less than €1m.

A minimum of three organisations from three different eligible countries must participate in a project submitted under this call, with at least one being from an eligible member state and one from an eligible Mediterranean Partner Country. At least 50% of the project’s budget must be spent by partners in MPCs.

One of the funded projects, implemented under the previous ENPI CBC Med programme between 2007 and 2013, was the Mediterranean Route for Tourism and Culture (MedRoute) project. The project was led by the Region of Sterea Ellada (Greece) and included another Greek partner as well as an additional two partners from Jordan and Italy.

Spread over two years, the project had a budget of €1.5m and was aimed at preserving and promoting natural and cultural resources while simultaneously diversifying the tourism product on offer and minimising tourism seasonality.

This aims were achieved through the mapping of cultural and thematic tourist routes and the capacity-building of Mediterranean authorities in promoting their local identities and alternative forms of tourism. During the course of the project, the partners also cooperated on formulating national policies within their respective countries on the promotion of thematic tourism through the use of new technology. In this way, the project was also innovative since partners explored the use of new ICT tools for the promotion of touristic assets.

Entities interested in applying for funds under the ENI CBC Med Programme call for standard projects or wishing to join existing project consortia can log on to ENI CBC Med official website www.enpicbcmed.eu and browse proposed projects or create an account to propose their own project idea on the partner search tool available on the website. The deadline for submitting project applications under this call is 9 November.

Further information about this call (including the call guidelines and application form), is also available on the website. For additional queries or to set up a meeting with Meusac to discuss a project idea under this funding programme, phone on 2200 3300, email: funding.meusac@gov.mt