European Territorial Cooperation (ETC), better known as Interreg, is one of the two goals of the EU Cohesion Policy and provides a framework for the implementation of joint actions and policy exchanges between national, regional and local actors from different Member States.

The Cooperation Programme “Greece-Bulgaria 2014-2020” was approved by the European Commission on 13/12/2016 by Decision C(2016)8708.

Greece and Bulgaria, two neighboring countries with a rich past, since the end of the 1990s have entered an era of closer co-operation, due to the INTERREG Programme “Greece-Bulgaria”.

The eligible area of the Programme consists of the Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace (Prefectures of Evros, Kavala, Xanthi, Rodopi and Drama) and the Region of Central Macedonia (Prefectures of Thessaloniki and Serres) in Greece and the South-Central Planning Region and South-West Planning Region (Districts of Blagoevgrad, Smolyan, Kardjali and Haskovo) in Bulgaria.

The Greece-Bulgaria cross-border cooperation area for the programming period 2014-2020 is identical to the current ETC programme. It extends to 40.202 km2 and has a total population of 2.7 million inhabitants.

The priority axes are:
PA 1: A Competitive and Entrepreneurship Promoting Cross-Border Area
PA 2: A Sustainable and climate adaptable Cross-Border area
PA 3: A better interconnected Cross-Border Area
PA 4: A socially inclusive Cross-Border area
PA 5: Technical Assistance

Green Crew Key Facts
Project Full Title: “Green” employment in the management of biowastes
Project Acronym: Green Crew
Project Duration: 24 months
Funding Scheme: Interreg V-A Greece – Bulgaria 2014-2020
Participating Countries: Greece, Bulgaria