SECTION I

The European territorial cooperation goal (Interreg) shall be implemented through Interreg programmes under shared management with the exception of Interreg D programmes, which may be implemented as a whole or partially under indirect management in agreement with the Member State or Member States concerned after consulting stakeholders. The participating Member States and, where applicable, third countries, partner countries, OCTs, or regional integration and cooperation organisations shall prepare an Interreg programme in accordance with the template set out in the Annex for the period from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2027. The participating Member States shall prepare an Interreg programme in cooperation with the programme partners referred to in Article 8 of Regulation (EU) 2021/1060. In the preparation of Interreg B programmes, covering macro-regional or sea-basin strategies, the Member States and the programme partners shall take into account the thematic priorities of the relevant macro-regional and sea-basin strategies and consult the relevant actors, as well as ensure that these actors at macro-regional and sea-basin level are brought together at the start of the programming period in line with that Article. The participating third countries or partner countries or, where applicable, OCTs shall also involve the programme partners, including regional integration and cooperation organisations, equivalent to those referred to in that Article. The Member State hosting the prospective managing authority shall submit an Interreg programme to the Commission by 2 April 2022 on behalf of all participating Member States and, where applicable, third countries, partner countries or OCTs, or regional integration and cooperation organisations. However, where an Interreg programme covers support from an external financing instrument of the Union, the Member State hosting the prospective managing authority shall submit the Interreg programme to the Commission not later than nine months after the adoption by the Commission of the relevant multi-annual strategy documents provided for in Article 10(1) or in accordance with the respective basic legislative act of that external financing instrument of the Union. The participating Member States and, where applicable, third countries, partner countries or OCTs shall confirm in writing their agreement to the contents of an Interreg programme prior to its submission to the Commission. That agreement shall also include a commitment by all participating Member States and, where applicable, third countries, partner countries or OCTs to provide the co-financing necessary to implement the Interreg programme and, where applicable, the commitment for the financial contribution of the third countries, partner countries or OCTs. By way of derogation from the first subparagraph, in the case of Interreg programmes involving outermost regions and third countries, partner countries or OCTs, the Member States concerned shall consult the respective third countries, partner countries or OCTs before submitting the Interreg programmes to the Commission. In that case, the agreements to the contents of the Interreg programmes and the possible financial contribution by the third countries, partner countries or OCTs may be expressed instead in the formally approved minutes of the consultation meetings with the third countries, partner countries or OCTs concerned or of the deliberations of regional integration and cooperation organisations. The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 62 to amend the Annex in order to adapt to changes occurring during the programming period for non-essential elements thereof. Each Interreg programme shall set out a joint strategy for the programme’s contribution to the policy objectives set out in Article 5(1) of Regulation (EU) 2021/1060 and, where relevant, to the Interreg-specific objectives set out in Article 14(4) and (5) of this Regulation and the communication of its results. Each Interreg programme shall consist of priorities. Each priority shall correspond to a single policy objective or, where applicable, to one or both Interreg-specific objectives, respectively, and shall consist of one or more specific objectives. More than one priority may correspond to the same policy or Interreg-specific objective. Each Interreg programme shall set out: the programme area, including, whenever possible, a map thereof as a separate document; a summary of the main joint challenges, taking into account: economic, social and territorial disparities as well as inequalities; joint investment needs and complementarity and synergies with other funding programmes and instruments; lessons learnt from past experience; macro-regional strategies and sea-basin strategies where the programme area as a whole or partially is covered by one or more strategies; a justification for the selected policy objectives and Interreg-specific objectives, corresponding priorities, specific objectives or actions under the Interreg-specific objectives and the forms of support, addressing, where appropriate, missing links in cross-border infrastructure; the specific objectives or actions under the Interreg-specific objectives for each priority; for each specific objective or for each action under the Interreg-specific objectives: the related types of actions and their expected contribution to those specific objectives or actions under the Interreg-specific objectives and, where appropriate, to macro-regional strategies and sea-basin strategies; output indicators and result indicators with the corresponding milestones and targets; the main target groups; an indication of the specific territories targeted, including the planned use of integrated territorial investments (ITI), community-led local development or other territorial tools; the planned use of financial instruments; and an indicative breakdown of the programmed resources by type of intervention; a financing plan containing the following tables without any division per participating Member State, third country, partner country or OCT, unless specified otherwise therein: a table specifying, by year, the total financial allocation for the ERDF and, where relevant, for each external financing instrument of the Union for the whole programming period; a table specifying, for each priority, the total financial allocation by the ERDF and, where relevant, by each external financing instrument of the Union by priority and the national co-financing and whether the national co-financing is made up of public and private co-financing; the actions taken to involve the relevant programme partners referred to in Article 8 of Regulation (EU) 2021/1060 in the preparation of the Interreg programme, and the role of those programme partners in the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of that programme; the envisaged approach to communication and visibility for the Interreg programme through defining its objectives, target audiences, communication channels, including social media outreach, where appropriate, planned budget and relevant indicators for monitoring and evaluation; and an indication of support to small-scale projects, including small projects within small project funds. When a Member State submits the programme, it shall ensure that the programme is accompanied for information purposes by a list of planned operations of strategic importance and a timetable. As regards the information referred to in paragraph 3 for the tables referred to in point (f) of that paragraph and as concerns the support from external financing instruments of the Union, those financial allocations shall be set out as follows: for Interreg A programmes supported by IPA III and NDICI as a single amount (IPA III CBC or NEXT CBC) combining the contribution from Heading 2 ‘Cohesion and Values’, sub-ceiling Economic, social and territorial cohesion and Heading 6 ‘Neighbourhood and the World’; for Interreg B and C programmes supported by IPA III, NDICI or the OCTP as a single amount (‘Interreg funds’) combining the contribution from Heading 2 and Heading 6 or split per financing instrument ERDF, IPA III, NDICI and OCTP, pursuant to the choice of the programme partners; for Interreg B programmes supported by OCTP split per financing instrument (ERDF and OCTP); for Interreg D programmes supported by the NDICI and by the OCTP split per financing instrument (ERDF, NDICI and OCTP, as appropriate). With regard to point (e)(vi) of the first subparagraph of paragraph 3 of this Article, the types of intervention shall be based on a nomenclature set out in Annex I to Regulation (EU) 2021/1060. The Interreg programme shall: identify the programme authorities and the body to which payments are to be made by the Commission; lay down the procedure for setting up the joint secretariat; set out the apportionment of liabilities among the participating Member States and, where applicable, third or partner countries or OCTs, in the event of financial corrections imposed by the managing authority or the Commission. The managing authority shall communicate to the Commission any changes in the information referred to in point (a) or (b) of paragraph 6 without requiring a programme amendment. With regard to an Interreg A, B or D programme, where an A programme covers long borders with heterogeneous development challenges and needs, Member States and, where applicable, third countries, partner countries and OCTs participating in an Interreg programme may define sub-programme areas. By way of derogation from paragraph 3, the content of Interreg C programmes shall be adapted to the specific character of those Interreg programmes, in particular as follows: the information referred to in point (a) of paragraph 3 is not required; the information required pursuant to points (b) and (g) of paragraph 3 shall be given as a short outline; for each specific objective, the following information shall be given: with regard to INTERACT and ESPON, the definition of a single beneficiary or a limited list of beneficiaries and the granting procedure; the related types of actions and their expected contribution to the specific objectives; output indicators and result indicators with the corresponding milestones and targets; the main target groups; and an indicative breakdown of the programmed resources by type of intervention. The Commission shall assess each Interreg programme and its compliance with Regulations (EU) 2021/1060 and (EU) 2021/1058 and this Regulation and, in the case of support from an external financing instrument of the Union and, where relevant, its consistency with the multi-annual strategy documents pursuant to Article 10(1) of this Regulation or the relevant strategic programming framework pursuant to the respective basic legislative act of one or more of those instruments. The Commission may make observations within three months of the date of submission of the Interreg programme by the Member State hosting the prospective managing authority. The participating Member States and, where applicable, third or partner countries or OCTs shall review the Interreg programme taking into account the observations made by the Commission. The Commission shall adopt a decision by means of an implementing act approving each Interreg programme not later than five months after the date of the first submission of that programme by the Member State hosting the prospective managing authority. With regard to external cross-border Interreg programmes, the Commission shall adopt its decisions in accordance with paragraph 4 of this Article after consultation of the ‘IPA III Committee’ in accordance with the relevant provision of the IPA III Regulation and of the ‘Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation instrument committee’ in accordance with Article 45 of Regulation (EU) 2021/947. Following the consultation of and the approval by the monitoring committee and in compliance with Article 8 of Regulation (EU) 2021/1060, the managing authority may submit a reasoned request for an amendment of an Interreg programme together with the amended programme, setting out the expected impact of that amendment on the achievement of the objectives. The Commission shall assess the compliance of the requested amendment with Regulations (EU) 2021/1060 and (EU) 2021/1058 and this Regulation and may make observations within two months of the submission of the amended programme. The participating Member States and, where applicable, third countries, partner countries or OCTs shall review the amended programme and take into account the observations made by the Commission. The Commission shall adopt a decision by means of an implementing act approving the amendment of an Interreg programme not later than four months after its submission by the managing authority. Following the consultation of and the approval by the monitoring committee and in compliance with Article 8 of Regulation (EU) 2021/1060, the managing authority may transfer during the programming period an amount of up to 10 % of the initial allocation of a priority and no more than 5 % of the programme budget to another priority of the same Interreg programme. Such transfers shall not affect previous years. The transfer and related changes shall not be considered substantial and shall not require a decision of the Commission amending the Interreg programme. They shall, however, comply with all regulatory requirements. The managing authority shall submit to the Commission the revised table referred to in point (f)(ii) of Article 17(3) together with any related changes in the programme. The approval of the Commission shall not be required for corrections of a purely clerical or editorial nature that do not affect the implementation of the Interreg programme. The managing authority shall inform the Commission of such corrections.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-11-02 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.