On 8 November 2019, in Sofia, the Seventh Joint Monitoring Committee meeting under the Interreg-IPA Cross-border Cooperation Bulgaria-Serbia Programme 2014-2020 was held. The meeting was co-chaired by Denitsa Nikolova, Deputy Minister of the Regional Development and Public Works of the Republic of Bulgaria and by Valentina Vidović, Ministry of the European Integration of the Republic of Serbia.

Ms. Magali Lenoel, representative of the DG Regio, European Commission, expressed her contentment with a good progress of programming and thanked to Joint Secretariat for two very interesting visits to projects implemented under the Programme, one in Botevgrad and one in Pravets that made a strong impression. The first project was aimed at youth development, and the second one covered the restoration and reconstruction of the old inn and old school. Ms. Lenoel expressed her contentment with the results achieved. She said these were projects that could be given as good examples of sustainability and focus on people.

During the meeting the progress of implementation of the Interreg-IPA CBC Bulgaria - Serbia Programme 2014-2020 was presented, as well as the Action plan for implementation of the recommendations elaborated within the Final Evaluation Report for “Implementation evaluation of Interreg - IPA CBC Programmes 2014-2020, managed by the Republic of Bulgaria”. Additionally, the information regarding the programming 2021-2027 progress was presented.

Implementation milestones in the previous year were presented, analysis of the First Call projects and beneficiaries per type and per region, number of projects per call and per priority axis, achievement of indicators, information and publicity measures, as well the financial progress per priority axis.

Performance assessment and identified ways for improvement of activities under Interreg-IPA CBC programmes have been presented, as well as findings and recommendations related to the effectiveness and efficiency of the Programme, the Programme management system, relevance, consistency and complementarity of the objectives of the Programme, effectiveness and efficiency of the Communication strategy.