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The workshop dedicated to the launch of Black Sea Basin Joint Operational Programme 2014-2020 of the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI) took place today, July 26 in Yerevan.
As Deputy Minister of Economy of Armenia, Garegin Melkonyan mentioned in his opening speech, the purpose of the programme is to ensure regional cooperation between Armenia, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova.  

The programme is funded by the ENPI. Its total budget amounts to EUR 54 billion. All participant countries are potential beneficiaries. According to Garegin Melkonyan, joint projects should be within the limits of EUR 300 thousand and EUR 1.5 million.

As in the previous stage, in this one too RA state administrations, regional administrations and municipalities, NGOs, non-profit organizations, educational institutions, cultural and archaeological associations, tourism and regional development agencies, protected areas and research institutions are potential beneficiaries.

“The objective of this programme is to promote cross-border cooperation, which the countries must pursue through the use of common resources,” the Deputy Minister said.

Garegin Melkonyan also informed that the first stage of the programme, during which more than 20 institutions from Armenia participated, has been quite a success.

“Today’s workshop marks the launch of the second stage. The applications for participation should be submitted by September,” Garegin Melkonyan said.

Cooperation Officer of EU Delegation to Armenia, John Barker noted that he’s very excited that the EU decided to make this move. He also noted that the main goal is to share experience and ideas between member and non-member countries.

According to John Barker, the projects implemented by Armenia have been quite successful and useful for the region, yet he hopes the number of applicants will increase.

During the workshop, participants were presented with the plan of joint actions of cross-border cooperation of Black Sea basin countries, the possible ways of finding partners among the participating countries, requirements, formats and contents of the packages of applications, the role and responsibilities of the partners, the procedure, etc.

Azerbaijan was also supposed to participate in the programme, yet as Garegin Melkonyan noted, it was left out after discussions.