On the 16th and 17th February 2023, the Rapporteur at the DG REGIO of the European Commission, Dr. Anna Monika Modzelewska, guest of the Interreg VI-A Italy-Slovenia Programme, took part in a series of initiatives concerning projects financed on the cross-border territory between Italy and Slovenia.
On 16th February, the Rapporteur, joined by the Managing Authority and the head of the Joint Secretariat, took part in Koper in the press conference for the launch of ADRIONCYCLETOUR, the first project of strategic relevance co-funded by the Interreg VI-A Italy-Slovenia Programme for the 2021-2027 period, which intends to address the challenge of making the Programme area more attractive and accessible through the promotion of sustainable tourism linked to cycling.
The Rapporteur and the Programme delegation then visited, also in Koper, the Gravisi-Buttorai palace, headquarters of the Gravisi Italian Multimedia Centre, restored and enlarged thanks to PRIMIS, a project co-financed by the V-A Italy-Slovenia 2014-2020 Programme. Representatives of the project partnership, including the president of the Italian Union, the lead partner, greeted the guests.
On the morning of 17th February, the visit went to Trieste, at the Port System Authority of the Eastern Adriatic Sea, with the lead partner of CLEAN BERTH, a project co-funded by the V-A Italy-Slovenia 2014-2020 Programme and whose objective was to strengthen the institutional capacity of the ports in the Program Area towards a coordinated and permanent governance in the field of environmental sustainability and port energy efficiency at cross-border level, through developing joint action plans and long-term strategies. After a brief presentation of the activities of the ports of Trieste and Monfalcone, the visit continued by viewing the electric car charging stations built thanks to the project.
In the afternoon, in Gorizia, the Rapporteur was able to observe not only the symbolic places of the city (the castle, the Transalpina square, the railway station from which the international line to Nova Gorica originates), but above all the concrete results of the cooperation, crossing the footbridge over the river Isonzo/Soča in the recreational park of Solkan, realised within the ISONZO-SOČA project, co-funded by the V-A Italy-Slovenia 2014-2020 Programme, which aims to promote and increase the usability, including by residents, of the cross-border territory crossed by the river Soča in the municipalities of Gorizia, Nova Gorica and Šempeter-Vrtojba, improving the accessibility and sustainable mobility of the area. This is a unique project in Europe, as it is implemented in the framework of the Integrated Territorial Investment (ITI) of the cross-border area by the sole beneficiary European Grouping for Territorial Cooperation (EGTC).
The last stop was Oslavia, located on the hills to the north of Gorizia, to observe the benefits on the territory brought by SUSGRAPE, a project co-funded by the V-A Italy-Slovenia 2014-2020 Programme, which promoted the innovation and the acquisition of new technologies by companies and SMEs in the Italian-Slovenian cross-border area by developing synergies and cross-border networks among companies operating in the wine sector, SMEs operating in the ICT sector, SMEs operating in the ICT sector, Research Centres, Universities and by fostering eco-innovation processes that allow a more efficient use of natural resources and the reduction of the use of chemicals in agriculture.
The visit of our Representative to the European Commission was also an opportunity to record the video presentation of the new Interreg VI-A Italy-Slovenia Programme, which will be published soon on the new website of the Programme.
More details on the ADRIONCYCLETOUR project
More details on the PRIMIS project
More details on the CLEAN BERTH project
Operation co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund
