EGTC-workshop 2025/1 (Budapest)

On 9 April 2025, the first EGTC workshop of 2025 took place in Budapest, financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and with professional support from CESCI, focusing on direct EU funding opportunities and the coordination of EGTC development plans.
In the opening presentation of the event, Viktória Lilla Pató (MFOI: Hungarian Development Promotion Office Nonprofit Ltd.) presented the direct EU funding opportunities for EGTCs. She emphasised that although almost everyone is familiar with the operational programmes, far fewer people are aware of the direct EU funds available, even though these programmes offer significant resources (around one third of the total EU budget). There are currently 42 programmes with direct EU funding, and their share of the total EU budget is growing. The MFOI representative emphasised that the involvement of organisations in these calls for proposals requires structured and strategic thinking and careful partnership building. She considered it important to have not only financial needs but also innovative project ideas in the pipeline. She also shared more detailed information on some of the programmes (LIFE, European Urban Initiative (EUI), Erasmus+, CERV (Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values Programme), Digital Europe Programme, URBACT). She concluded her presentation by pointing out that the services offered by MFOI include consulting (project idea development, recommendation of consortia and platform organisations), policy advocacy, pro bono training and the development of e-learning materials. Although they do not write applications, they support the process from idea generation to application submission.