The Interreg Europe programme has a budget of 394.5 million EUR for the 2021-2027 period.

There is not budget allocation per priority. However, 80% of the programme budget is devoted to the topics covered under

• Policy Objective 1 'A smarter Europe';
• Policy Objective 2 'A greener Europe'
• and certain topics covered under Policy Objective 4 'A more social Europe'.

The remaining 20% are available for the topics covered under the three remaining policy objectives.

Interreg Europe recommends that a project’s total ERDF budget ranges from 1 MEUR up to 2 MEUR.

The average ERDF budget of projects approved under the 1st call is 1.4 MEUR. In any case, the total budget of a project depends on different parameters and in particular on the number of partners involved as well as on the number and nature of the activities envisaged.

The Policy Learning Platform is the second action of the Interreg Europe programme, established to boost EU-wide policy learning and capitalisation on practices from regional development policies. The platform offers the following services to support policy learning:

• Expert Policy advice (e.g. through Peer reviews,matchmakings, Policy Helpdesk),
• Policy solutions (e.g. policy briefs, editorials, a database of good practices),
• Commuity of practitioners (e.g. thematic networking, capacity building and policy learning events).

You can explore the services that the Policy Learning Platform offers in this brochure.

The Policy Learning Platform was launched in October 2016 to support policymakers to deliver better policies in their regions.

An international team of experts specialised in the policy fields addressed by the programme or in knowledge management and communication was commissioned by the programme (through a public procurement) to deliver the Platform’s services to the regions across Europe interested in improving their regional development policies.

Yes. Partners in interregional cooperation projects should be actively involved in the work of the Platform during the lifetime of their project.

Projects are required to report on their participation in Policy Learning Platform activities in their progress reports. Projects should contribute to the Platform’s content and share their knowledge and experience. For instance, each region participating in a project has to feed interesting and relevant good practices developed in their region into the Platform’s online database.

Furthermore, projects should participate in Platform events (e.g workshops dedicated to project partners, webinars) and be ready to share their knowledge (e.g. speakers in events, contributions in policy briefs and publications, peers in peer reviews and matchmaking sessions).

They are also invited to register in the Interreg Europe community, especially the persons responsible for specific policy field in order to create a community of regional practitioners throughout Europe.

Yes! You are able to access the Platform services for free even if you are not participating in a project.

As a general community member, you can join our events and have access to our written publications.

Also, the policy helpdesk is accessible to all our community members. If you represent a public authority, you can also access our matchmaking sessions and peer review services. Check our policy learning services to discover more.

Yes, we welcome our community members to submit ideas for specific topics and policy challenges to treat in our online events or written publications. We only require them to fall under one of the main topics of the programme:

• Smart,
• Green,
• Connected,
• Social,
• Citizens
• or Governance.

You are welcome to contact our thematic experts with direct questions related to specific topics or activities. Should you have more general questions, you can also contact members of the Platform management team. 

No, the Platform experts cannot support applicants in drafting their project applications.

Instead, you can submit your project idea and request feedback directly from the Joint Secretariat of Interreg Europe. You can request feedback only during open calls, otherwise the tool is closed. In addition, you can also use the self-assessment tool to evaluate if the project idea is relevant for Interreg Europe.

There are many features that make Interreg Europe different from other Interreg programmes.

The two most important are the following:

1. Its geographical coverage: Interreg Europe is covering the all the European Union plus other Partner States while the geographical score of other Interreg programmes is restricted to cross border or transnational areas.
2. Its overall objective: Interreg Europe aims at improving regional development policies through exchange of experience. It is therefore different in its core target groups (i.e., local and regional public authorities) and in the nature of the activities supported (mainly dedicated to capacity building).

Interreg Europe scope includes the fields defined by the policy and specific objectives presented in Article 5 of the common provisions regulation (EU) 2021/1060 and Article 3 of the ERDF regulation (EU) 2021/1058. The programme specific objectives are also described in the programme manual.

Your project should target only one policy objective among the programme scope, based on the policy instruments that are adressed by the partners.

Interreg Europe scope includes the fields defined by the policy and specific objectives presented in Article 5 of the common provisions regulation (EU) 2021/1060 and Article 3 of the ERDF regulation (EU) 2021/1058.

We cover six topics:

• Smarter Europe
• Greener Europe
• A more connected Europe
• A more social Europe
• Europe closer to citizens
• Better European governance

The programme specific objectives are also described in the programme manual and in the video below  (0:23 - 0:43 & 9:40 - 11:32).

If you have the right to edit your project’s website:

1. Log into your Interreg Europe community account
2. From your account menu, select ‘Project websites’
3. In your dashboard, find the project website you wish to edit
4. Click ‘Edit project’

You should arrive at your website’s editing tool. Download and follow the instructions in the user manual for more details.

If you do not see any project websites in your dashboard, ask your lead partner to provide you with editing rights.

Your project can assign as many people as needed to edit the project website.

They will need an account in the Interreg Europe community and your lead partner or project admin will have to give them editing rights via the Portal.

Your lead partner or project admin is responsible for assigning the web admin role to the person in charge of editing your project’s website via the Portal.

The lead partner needs to:

1. Log into the Portal and access the project area
2. Go to the ‘Project users’ section
3. Select the user who needs to edit the project website
4. Assign them the ‘web admin’ role under ‘Roles in project’
5. Click save

Interreg Europe is dedicated to reinforcing ‘the effectiveness of cohesion policy’.

It pursues the overall objective to improve the implementation of regional development policies, including Investment for jobs and growth goal programmes, by promoting the exchange of experiences, innovative approaches, and capacity building in relation to the identification, dissemination, and transfer of good practices among regional policy actors.

Interreg Europe is therefore dedicated to cooperation among regional policy organisations from across Europe.

By supporting learning and increasing the capacities of these organisations, the programme will strive to improve the design and delivery of regional development policies.

For more information, watch the video (1:09 - 2:50).