site.btaEUR 1.7 Mln under Bulgaria-Turkiye Cross-Border Cooperation Programme to Be Invested in Coping with Irregular Migration

The measures set in the Bulgaria-Turkiye IPA Cross-border Cooperation Programme 2021-2027 for tackling illegal migration can start as soon as possible, as it poses serious challenges at this point, Bulgarian Deputy Regional Development and Public Works Minister Desislava Georgieva said at the opening of the first Monitoring Committee meeting of the Interreg IPA Bulgaria-Turkiye Cross-border Cooperation Programme 2021-2027 in Edirne on Thursday, Georgieva's Ministry said in a press release on Friday.

The meeting was co-chaired by Georgieva and by Serdar Ozturk, Deputy General Manager of Project Implementation and Financial Cooperation at Turkiye's Directorate for EU Affairs.

The participants in the meeting approved Guidelines for Applications under the Programme's strategic project, whose EUR 1.7 million budget will be targeted at training and sharing experience and best practices to increase police departments' capacity to tackle irregular migration. Measures for security enhancement and supply of specialized equipment to boost the partners' technical preparedness will be financed as well. The strategic partners for Bulgaria will be the regional directorates of the Interior Ministry in Haskovo, Yambol and Burgas and, for Turkiye, the provincial administrations of Edirne and Kirklareli. The project will be financed under the specific objective "Mobility and migration" within the Programme's third priority "More secure cross-border region".

Stock of the progress in the implementation of the 2014-2020 Programme was taken during the Monitoring Committee meeting. A total of 101 joint projects totalling EUR 28.7 million have been financed under that Programme. The implementation of 98 of these projects has been successfully completed. EUR 24.6 million or 83% of the programme budget have been disbursed, and EUR 22 million or 73% have been certified.

The INTERREG VI-A IPA Bulgaria-Turkiye Cross-border Cooperation Programme 2021-2027 is financed with EUR 34 million by the EU Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA III).

The Programme's three priorities focus on support for business in the green transition (energy efficiency and circular economy), effective integrated territorial development, and irregular migration management.