Travelling Office visits Vinica

The EU Funds Travelling Office visited Bela krajina, more precisely, the settlement of Vinica. The participants visiting the Vinica castle learned about the opportunities of co-funding under the European Cohesion Policy, cross-border cooperation in the area between Slovenia and Croatia and internal affairs.  

The participants were first addressed by the State Secretary at the Ministry of Cohesion and Regional Development mag. Marko Koprivc. He underlined that regional development policy cannot be implemented from an office in Ljubljana which is why the EU Funds Travelling Office is visiting all the Slovenian regions.  

Director of the Novo mesto Development Centre Franci Bratkovič then presented the current situation in the Southeast Slovenia statistical region and the challenges that must be addressed, in particular measures in the field of infrastructure and youth emigration prevention.  

The opportunities of addressing these challenges with the help of EU co-financing were presented by:

• Beti Blagus from the Ministry of Cohesion and Regional Development, who presented the opportunities under Slovenia’s Cohesion Policy Programme 2021-2027,
• Željka Kitić from the Ministry of Cohesion and Regional Development, who presented the opportunities under the Interreg Slovenia-Croatia programme, and
• Simona Brešćanski from the Ministry of the Interior, who presented the funds in the field of internal affairs, namely the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF), Internal Security Fund (ISF) and Financial Support Instrument for Border Management and Visa Policy (IGFV).

The visit ended with the presentation of best practices in the field of EU funding, namely the project HITRO – a joint cross-border protection and rescue operational unit which won second place in this year’s Best EU Project competition.    

The event was moderated by Klavdija Operčkal, National Coordinator for EU Funds communication.

For more highlights of the event, see the video below.