The ninth meeting of the Joint Monitoring Committee under the Interreg-IPA CBC Bulgaria - Serbia  Programme 2014-2020 was held online on 22 November 2021. The progress of Programme implementation for the period 2014-2020 and the preparation stage of the future Programme between the two countries for the next programming period 2021-2027 have been presented on the meeting.

The results achieved from the start until now are more than satisfactory:

- 34.2 million EUR  invested in supporting the tourism, youths and environment in the CBC region, which is 110% over-contracting of the Programme budget;

- Close to 65% of the Programme budget already paid to the beneficiaries;

- All objectives and financial targets for 2021 and 2022 are  completedin accordance with the N+3 rule .

Additionally, the JMC memvbers were informed, that the draft of the new Programme is expected to be submitted by to the European Commission until 31 March 2022, as a tentative deadline. In parallel, the Managing Authority is working on Guidelines for applicants, including simplified costs options, in order to be ready when the Programme is adopted in the early 2022.

The agenda of the meeting also included issues, related to the management of the Technical assistance of the Programme, which has been accepted by the JMC members without any remarks or comments.

At the end of the meeting, the participants had the pleasure to watch a short video for sports projects under the Programme, which has been produced for the Project Slam Initiative of Interact this year. The video is available HERE. [1]