The Interreg program Greece - Bulgaria

The area of cross-border cooperation between Greece and Bulgaria for the programming period 2014-2020 is identical to the current ETC program. It extends over 40,202 km2 and has a total population of 2.7 million inhabitants. It covers four territorial units at NUTS II level (Regions) and 11 territorial units at NUTS III level (Regional Units). The eligible area spans the entire Greek-Bulgarian border and borders Turkey (to the east) and the Republic of North Macedonia (to the west), two countries aspiring to gain access to the EU. It forms part of the EU's most south-eastern non-island region and lies between in three seas: the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea and the Ionian-Adriatic Sea. Finally, it is at the crossroads of strategic fossil fuel pipelines that feed the EU market and European transport axes.

The residential structure of the region is characterized by the presence of 10 medium-large cities (>50,000 inhabitants) that gather 38.2% of the total population and 25 small cities (10,000 – 50,000 inhabitants).

Despite the historically relatively small amounts of funds allocated, there is a long history of cooperation in the eligible area, which began with the Community initiative INTERREG I (1989 – 1993).

The priority axes of the Program are:

• PA 1: Promotion of competitiveness and entrepreneurship in the cross-border area
• PA 2: Sustainable and climate adaptable cross-border area
• PA 3: Better interconnection in the cross-border area
• PA 4: Cross-border area without social exclusion
• PA 5: Technical Assistance