About the Programme 2021-2027

The Interreg North-West Europe Programme 2021-2027 is now formally approved by the European Commission and the North-West Europe Task Force (NTF). The document was drafted in compliance with Article 17 of the Interreg Regulation for the 2021-2027 period, according to the template annexed to the aforementioned regulation.

The NTF task force was set up to design the 2021-2027 Programme and gathers representatives of six Members States as well as, in advisory capacity, the Joint Secretariat, the Managing Authority (Région Hauts-de-France), Contact Points and an external facilitator. It was set up in November 2020.

The final Interreg Programme (version 24 Aug 2022) is the outcome of discussions among Member States within the North West Europe Task Force on the Future (NTF) and its dedicated working groups, which have based themselves on the Interreg Regulation for the 2021-2027 period and the SWOT analysis for the future programme. It also includes input from the NWE Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and the feedback submitted to the NWE Programme via its stakeholder consultation.

Thematic orientation

The NWE Programme 2021-2027 focuses on five priorities and nine specific ebjectives.

Priority 1: Climate and environment

Priority 2: Energy transition

Priority 3: Circular economy

Priority 4: Innovation and resilience

Priority 5: Inclusive society

The Specific Objectives numbering refers to the one that appears in the NWE IP document. It follows the numbering of Specific Objectives as defined by the European Commission.

Programme area

Seven countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, The Netherlands and Switzerland) have confirmed their participation in the future Interreg North-West Europe Programme.

We are particularly proud to announce that six new regions from Germany and the Netherlands will join our programme.

In total, those six regions will strenghten Interreg NWE by adding an area of 35,823 km2 and a population of seven million inhabitants to our programme. Thanks to these additions, the Netherlands will now be entirely covered by Interreg NWE and a significant part of rural and urban (Hannover / Bremen) North West Germany joins us.  More detailed information on these new regions is available below.

These additions reaffirm Interreg NWE’s position as the post-industrial heart of Europe.

Considering the above-mentioned changes, the NWE Programme area is, for the moment, designed as presented in the map below.

 

New regions joining Interreg NWE:

Germany:

 

Netherlands:

Bremen (DE50)

 

 Groningen (NL11)

Weser-Ems (DE94)

 

 Friesland (NL12)

Leine-Weser (Hannover) (DE92)

 

 Drenthe (NL13)

Territorial analysis

A territorial analysis (full reportsummary version), identifying the NWE Programme’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats – comparatively to other (Interreg) Programmes was conducted. Drawing lessons from the 2014-2020 period, it seeks to answer the following question: What type of territorial projects would deliver added value to European Territorial Cohesion through transnational cooperation? The document defines Interreg NWE's needs regarding its territorial span and includes recommendations for a geographical area to be covered by the next programme. It also addresses target groups to engage with and topics to tackle in 2021-2027. This is a background document which will support the working groups and NTF discussions and help in drafting the new Cooperation Programme.

Stakeholder consultation

In the framework of the elaboration process of the Future NWE programme 2021-2027, all interested stakeholders at EU, national, regional, and local level were invited to share their feedback on the thematic orientations preselected by NWE Member States via a stakeholder consultation, which was open for about 5 weeks, running from 25 February until 28 March 2021. A total of 412 responses were collected, which illustrates a high interest of stakeholders in the Interreg NWE Programme 2021-2027.

The outcome of this consultation was brought together in a synthesis report, which was used by the NTF to fine tune the indicative thematic orientations and identify as precisely as possible the target audiences for each topic.

The report notably provides insights into the following areas:

  • main characteristics of respondents, especially showing how balanced responses are in terms of geography and types of organisations (Sections 2.1 and 2.2);
  • the main added value raised by respondents from cooperation in NWE (Section 2.3);
  • an overview of the interest in the five priorities (Chapter 3);
  • an overview of other fields of interest raised by respondents across priorities (Chapter 4); and
  • some conclusions (Chapter 5).

Disclaimer: This report uses the formulation of priorities and fields of interest as applied in the survey at the beginning of 2021, notwithstanding any changes of how priorities and fields of interest may be formulated or considered at all in the final Interreg Programme.

NWE Programme flyer

Your project idea. Our funding.

Our flyer presents our key information on the 2021-2027 programme in a nutshell.

The flyer is available here.

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