INTERREG is the EU Community initiative which is financed under the European Regional Development Fund.  INTERREG is designed as a programme for fostering the harmonic and balanced development of the European territory, and its basic principle is that national borders can not be the obstacles for the European territory integration, balanced development and cooperation.

Already from the beginning of 2004 Latvia may receive financing from the Community initiative INTERREG funds. According to present calculations, it will be 15.2 million euros for the time period 2004-2006.

Programme target group:

The Baltic Sea Region EU Member State national, regional and local authorities, nongovernmental organizations and non-profit organizations, educational and research institutions.

INTERREG III A programme concerns the direct cross-border cooperation.Projects are developed together with theneighbouringcountry border region. A programmes are applied across the Europe in many countries.

International link

Aim of the INTERREG III B programme is cooperation among the European countries – fostering harmonised and balanced development of the territory that includes regional, economic and social cohesion. B programme in divided into 12 cooperation areas where each area covers a specific number of countries, for example, North Sea region, Mediterranean Sea region etc. Latvia is included and may participate in B programme within the framework of the Baltic Sea Region that includes 11 countries: Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Belarus and specific regions of Germany and Russia.

International link

INTERREG III C programme is applied across the entire European territory, and only for administrative purposes it is divided into four areas – North, East, South and West.

International link

Latviawill join the following programmes:

INTERREG IIIC North zone programme

IIIB Baltic Sea Region programme, with two new IIIA priorities included:

• Estonia – Latvia – Russia (North priority)
• Latvia - Lithuania – Belarus (South priority)

In addition, Latvia has also two joint European Commission initiatives that are financed under INTERREG funds:

• INTERACT- exchange of experience, training and adoption of best practices among different whole Europe INTERREG programmes 
• ESPON - spatial planning programme