For the first time the Regional Conference “Advancing Territorial Cooperation in Eastern Partnership Countries: Armenia-Georgia Territorial Cooperation Programme” will be held on Friday in Stepanavan, Armenia.
The European Union (EU) in the framework of its Eastern Partnership Territorial Cooperation Programme (EaPTC) promotes and strengthens cross-border relations between regional and local state authorities, communities and civil society organizations to develop joint solutions to common social and economic development challenges in the participating boarder regions.
The Regional Conference has a two-folded objective: to raise awareness of the wide public of the border regions of Armenia and Georgia on the opportunities and benefits the potential beneficiaries from both sides of the border may enjoy from participation in the Programme, as well as to provide a platform for open discussion of priorities and prospects of territorial cooperation at the local level, taking into consideration the specificities and needs of the participating border regions.
Vache Terteryan, First Deputy Minister for Territorial Administration of Armenia, Tengiz Shergelashvili, First Deputy Minister for Regional Development and Infrastructure of Georgia, representatives of Armenians and Georgian regional and local authorities, civil society organizations and European experts will participate in the event.
The Regional Conference is organized by the EU-funded Eastern Partnership Territorial Cooperation Support Programme (EaPTC Support Programme).
The main objective of the Eastern Partnership Territorial Cooperation Support Programme (EaPTC Support Programme) is to create a favorable environment for territorial cooperation programs along the borders Armenia-Georgia, Azerbaijan-Georgia, Belarus-Ukraine and Moldova-Ukraine with due regard to specifics of each border area, as well as to strengthen the capacity of local and regional state and non-state actors to jointly develop and implement cross-border projects.
The overall EU contribution to EaPTC is 12.5 million EUR.
