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Supporting partners active participation
The Commission recognises that cross border and regional cooperation offer particular challenges, especially for the non-Member States concerned, who have little or no experience with such a programming approach. To address this problem the Commission introduced the Regional Capacity Building Initiative (RCBI).
Whether it is helping local officials develop project proposals in Murmansk or giving information on ENPI CBC to people in Cairo, the EU's Regional Capacity Building Initiative (RCBI) project has been supporting the EU's neighbours to actively participate in cross border relations since April 2005. For more details on RCBI support click here.
Originally set up to assist four partner countries in the East, the project now supports the 15 partner countries in the South and the East currently participating in cross border cooperation under the new ENPI programmes for 2007-2013. The project will complete its work in December 2009.
A key feature of the ENPI CBC is the joint development and implementation of the programmes, including joint project preparation, project application, project selection and project implementation. RCBI was established by the Commission to assist the full and equal involvement of its neighbours in this new, participatory approach.
The project began life as technical assistance for the involvement of Russia, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine in the EU's Neighbourhood Programmes which paved the way for the introduction of the ENPI CBC Programmes. RCBI held awareness raising events on the new approach to CBC and built capacity for project identification and development through hands on workshops on topics such as how to fill out application forms. The search for partners was also supported including through a partners database. This database now lists around 2000 interested parties from local authorities to business associations and NGOs and will grow further under the current project.
In June 2006, RCBI widened its scope to assist the preparation of CBC programmes under the new ENPI 2007-2013 and extended its support to the three southern Caucasus countries of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia which had been included in the EU Neighbourhood Policy. Advice on programme strategy, assistance to attend meetings and consulting stakeholders were added to the range of support activities.
But there were even bigger challenges ahead. From January 2007, RCBI broadened its geographic scope to include the partner countries in the South and widened its support to include a stronger focus on the management of funds. As well as the full range of assistance outlined above, the devolution of responsibility for the proper use of funds to the JMA and lead partners, means considerable attention should be paid to the establishment of sound management, audit and control structures and processes. Given the differing legal requirements and actual practices in the countries concerned, this is a challenge for all partner countries.