How is it going EU? Part 1

The total financial contribution that came from Norway to EU programmes during the period 2014-2020 is estimated to be around 25 billion NOK. As of today Norway participates in several of the EU programmes including Horizon 2020, the Regional Development Program (Interreg) and in various other initiatives.

In 2021, a new budget period will start in the EU which means that Norway must again decide which EU programmes are interesting for us to participate in. 

For the new and fresh start, the European Commission has proposed to reduce the number of EU programmes from 58 to 37 and combine some of the activities together. This increases the budget scope in several initiatives that Norway has participated in before and gives new possibilities for example in the Horizon Europe (next, after Horizon 2020, research and innovation programme) and the Erasmus + (education programme). In addition, this is a chance for Norwegian participation in new programmes and / or in programmes that we have not yet cooperated in.

In early March, Norway (together with Iceland and Liechtenstein, since this is done through the EEA Agreement) sent a letter to the European Commission with a preliminary list of EU programmes which the EEA States have identified possible cooperations for the period 2021-2027.

Note that this is only an indication, and therefore not binding. The final decision will probably come  in the last quarter of 2020, or in the first quarter of 2021. Negotiations on the EU's long-term budget for 2021-2027 are still ongoing. Meanwhile let’s look at the programmes with possible Norwegian participation. In the next blog article we will look closely at three of them that might be very interesting for Østfold University Collage.