EGTC-Workshop 2017/1 (Esztergom)

The first EGTC workshop of 2017 was held on 7–8 May in Esztergom with the joint organisation of the Ister-Granum EGTC and the Department for Cross-border Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary. The participants of the event represented ten EGTCs with Hungarian membership. The two-day meeting was opened by head of the Department Péter Kiss-Parciu and Eugen Szabó, mayor of Štúrovo and director of the Ister-Granum EGTC. Péter Nagy afterwards welcomed the participants on behalf of the host EGTC.

Under the first agenda item, an employee at the Széchenyi Program Office presented the typical mistakes related to applications for the implementation of cross-border cooperation projects. He highlighted the issue of eligible costs, the criteria for eligibility, and the requirements of administrative nature. Under the agenda item that followed, the head of department of the Ministry for the National Economy presented the most important features of Community-led Local Development tools, which was followed by a presentation by his colleague on the future of territorial cohesion and the related European actualities.

In the second half of the afternoon, CESCI secretary general Gyula Ocskay gave a presentation on the action plans for employment of the V–A Slovakia–Hungary Cooperation Programme. He pointed out that radical changes were to take place in the EU cohesion policy after 2020, with regard to the amount and distribution of funds. It was followed by the presentation of the recently registered grouping, Ipoly-Völgye EGTC, and the report of the employees at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Trade (KKM) on the actual ETC programmes. The formal part of the meeting was closed by a consultation with the deputy state secretary and the employees of the KKM on the current issues related to cross-border cooperation.

On Wednesday, participants visited Kravany nad Dunajom where they were given a presentation by mayor Gábor Duka on local developments. They were invited for a tasting of local products at a local farmer’s, and visited the freight ferry between Esztergom and Štúrovo which was put into service last year.

The next EGTC will be hosted by CETC EGTC.

The workshop was sponsored by the project KÖFOP 3.3.3-15.