PRE-ACCESSION ASSISTANCE INSTRUMENT (IPA)
The Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) is the main financial instrument of the European Union which should advance the accession process of candidate and potential candidate countries for membership in the Union. With several changes from the first time perspective, 2007-2013, the second version of the instrument, IPA 2, has already entered into force, which will be implemented in the period 2014-2020. The previous 5 components – Transition Assistance, Cross-Border Cooperation, Regional Development, Human Resources and Rural Development, are now being replaced by areas of action: Democracy and Governance, Rule of Law and Fundamental Rights, Environment, Transport, Competitiveness and Innovation, Social , Agriculture and Rural Development, Regional and Territorial Cooperation, ie a sectoral approach has been introduced in the management of the allocated financial assistance.
For the period 2014-2020 for the Republic of Macedonia within IPA 2, about 664 million euros are provided. Potential beneficiaries of the allocated funds are all public institutions, ministries, state agencies, municipalities, educational institutions, non-governmental organizations and legal entities that represent the interests of the private sector (chambers of commerce, associations). Overall coordination of IPA II is assigned to the Directorate-General for EU Enlargement, with the exception of support for agriculture and rural development which remains the responsibility of the Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development. In the Republic of Macedonia, the main coordinator of the implementation of this instrument is the National IPA Coordinator, ie the Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Macedonia in charge of European Affairs.
More details about the IPA 2 instrument can be found at:
http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/instruments/funding-by-country/former-yugoslav-republic-of-macedonia/index_en.htm or on http://www.sep.gov.mk/content/?id=154#.V3JXv9J9670
COMPETITION PROGRAM AND SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES - COSME
COSME is the EU’s main instrument for financial support of small and medium-sized enterprises with a total budget of 2.3 billion. The instrument has 4 main forms of support: facilitating access to finance, supporting internationalization and access to markets, creating an environment for the development of competitiveness and encouraging an entrepreneurial culture. The Republic of Macedonia, ie the Macedonian companies are qualified beneficiaries of the program funds. In general, the program supports activities such as providing capital for growth, market access, lobbying to improve the legal framework for SMEs, supporting clusters, digitizing the business community, research, exchange of best practices and pilot projects for entrepreneurship education, mentoring and support for new entrepreneurs including young, old and women as well as Erasmus for Entrepreneurs which provides for cross-border exchange and work with an experienced entrepreneur in another country for a period of 6 months.
The website of the COSME Program is at the following link:
HORIZON
The Horizon program is the EU’s largest research and development program with a total of € 80 billion allocated for the period 2014-2020. The main goal of the program is to transfer more ideas from the open market laboratory and it focuses on innovations in commercial operations. For each country / region there is a separate “roadmap” with strategic commitments to support. The Republic of Macedonia is in a group with all countries that are part of the EU enlargement process. Horizon’s goal for these countries is to reach European standards and accelerate integration with the Union. Some of the areas for which support can be sought from Horizon are: innovation in small and medium enterprises, agriculture, forestry, biotechnology, energy, environment, food.
Details of the program can be found at:
SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISE SUPPORT INSTRUMENT (SME)
The instrument has a total of 3 billion euros for the period 2014-2020. It should help companies that have high potential in developing pioneering innovative ideas for products, services and processes and that are ready to face global competition. The primary target of the instrument are SMEs with great innovative, commercial potential, as well as a perspective for development and internationalization in operations. The instrument envisages three phases – feasibility assessment, innovative projects and commercialization. The funds of the instrument are available to the Macedonian companies and more details about it can be found at:
https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en/h2020-section/sme-instrument
CREATIVE EUROPE
The program merges previous EU Culture and Media programs. The total budget of Creative Europe for the period 2014-2020 is 1.46 billion euros. The program is intended for all cultural organizations and contains three main sub-programs: Culture, which provides 56% of the total program budget, Media with 31% of the program budget allocated and Cross-sectoral projects with about 13% of the total budget. The goals of Creative Europe are: assisting the creative and cultural sectors in harnessing the opportunities of digital time and globalization, enabling these sectors to reach their economic potential by contributing to sustainable growth, new jobs and social cohesion, and providing European media sectors and culture access to new international opportunities, markets and audiences. The responsible institution for the implementation of the program is the Educational, Cultural and Audiovisual Executive Agency – EACEA and the contact point in the Republic of Macedonia for the Program is the Film Agency.
More details about the program can be found at:
http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/creative-europe_en or on http://www.ced.mk/mk/