EU Backs Greek island, Cyprus Entrepreneurship with Funds

The EU approved last week funding amounting to 54 million euros via its  Interreg V-A “Greece-Cyprus 2014-2020” program to assist nine border regions in Greece, and all of Cyprus, towards further developing their local economies with measures that will create jobs, improve infrastructure and safeguard the environment.

The program covers the prefectures of Lesvos, Chios, Samos, the Dodecanese and the Cyclades, as well as Crete’s Heraklion, Lasithi, Rethymno and Chania, and the whole of Cyprus. 

“Thanks to this program, active cooperation will bring many concrete advantages to people living in the border regions of Greece and Cyprus; new jobs, boosted research and innovation, preserved natural heritage, and cutting-edge technologies that improve people’s lives and offer new areas for regional growth,” Corina Crețu, Commissioner for Regional Policy said.

The “Greece-Cyprus 2014-2020” program aims to reinforce competitiveness and entrepreneurship, tap into energy and sustainable transport and ensure effective management, environmental protection and risk prevention.

The funding program aims to boost competitiveness by supporting entrepreneurship, enhancing the use of information and communication technologies and providing support for small businesses focusing, meanwhile, on the ways in which these areas can work together to address and reverse the negative effects of climate change by investing in a low-emission economy.

Moreover, it will contribute to environmental protection either through risk prevention or in terms of promotion of the areas’ natural and cultural heritage.

Interreg, officially known as European Territorial Cooperation (ETC), provides financing and a framework for the implementation of joint actions and policy exchanges between national, regional and local actors from different EU member states.