Joint Operational Programme
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South-East Finland – Russia CBC 2014-2020 Joint Operational Programme The Programme is co-financed by the EU, the Russian Federation and Finland Endorsed by the European Commission on 18 December 2015 C(2015) 9184 TABLE OF CONTENT 1. INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................................................4 2. DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS OF THE PROGRAMME AREA ........................................................................7 2.1. Programme regions ............................................................................................................................7 2.1.1. Core regions ................................................................................................................................8 2.1.2. Adjoining regions ........................................................................................................................8 2.1.3. Major social, economic or cultural centres ................................................................................9 2.1.4. Regions outside the programme area ......................................................................................10 2.1.5. A map of the programme area .................................................................................................11 2.2. Socioeconomic situation ...................................................................................................................11 2.3. Population and population density ..................................................................................................14 2.4. Economic structure ...........................................................................................................................14 2.4.1. Main industrial sectors .............................................................................................................14 2.4.2. Labour market and income.......................................................................................................15 2.4.3. SMEs and entrepreneurship .....................................................................................................16 2.4.4. Tourism and Culture .................................................................................................................18 2.5. Education and research ....................................................................................................................19 2.6. The environment and nature............................................................................................................21 2.7. Environmental sustainability ............................................................................................................24 2.8. Infrastructure ....................................................................................................................................25 2.8.1. Telecommunications and broad band ......................................................................................25 2.8.2. Energy .......................................................................................................................................26 2.8.3. Border crossing infrastructure and transport networks...........................................................26 2.9. Area profiles .....................................................................................................................................31 3. PROGRAMME STRATEGY ..........................................................................................................................33 3.1. Description of the four priorities (and measures) chosen in line with the ......................................35 3.2. Justification for the choice of priorities and measures ....................................................................35 3.3. Objectively verifiable indicators, related target values and expected results .................................44 3.4. Risk analysis ......................................................................................................................................46 3.5. Cross-cutting and horizontal issues ..................................................................................................49 3.5.1. People-to-people ......................................................................................................................49 3.6. Coherence with other national and regional strategies and with other programmes financed by the EU, the Russian Federation or Finland ...................................................................................50 3.7. Lessons learned from the previous Programmes .............................................................................57 3.8. Information about the consultations and actions taken to involve the participating countries and regions to the preparation .........................................................................................................59 4. STRUCTURES AND APPOINTMENT OF THE COMPETENT AUTHORITIES AND MANAGEMENT BODIES... 61 2 4.1. Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC) ..................................................................................................61 4.2. Joint Selection Committee (JSC) .......................................................................................................62 4.3. Managing Authority (MA) .................................................................................................................63 4.4. National Authorities in participating countries (NA) ........................................................................66 4.5. Branch Office (BO) ............................................................................................................................68 4.6. Audit Authority (AA) and the members of the Group of Auditors ...................................................69 4.7. Control Contact Points (CCPs) in participating countries .................................................................70 5. PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION ............................................................................................................70 5.1. Summary description of management and control systems ............................................................70 5.2. Timeframe of the Programme implementation ...............................................................................77 5.3. Description of project selections procedures ...................................................................................78 5.4. Description of types of support ........................................................................................................80 5.5. Description of planned use of TA .....................................................................................................88 5.6. Description of the monitoring and evaluation systems ...................................................................89 5.7. The communication strategy ............................................................................................................94 5.8. Information on fulfilment of regulatory requirements laid down in Directive 2001/42/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council ...............................................................................97 5.9. Indicative financial plan ....................................................................................................................99 5.10. Use of the euro .......................................................................................................................... 102 5.11. Rules on eligibility of expenditure ............................................................................................. 102 5.12. The apportionment of liabilities among the participating countries ........................................ 105 5.13. Rules of transfer, use and monitoring of co-financing .............................................................. 106 5.14. Description of IT systems for the reporting and exchange of computerised data between the MA, the Commission, Finland and the Russian Federation ................................................ 107 5.15. Languages .................................................................................................................................. 108 6. ABBREVIATIONS ..................................................................................................................................... 109 ANNEX 1 ......................................................................................................................................................... 111 3 1. INTRODUCTION The South-East Finland – Russia Cross-Border Cooperation (CBC) Programme 2014–2020 has been drafted jointly by the Finnish and Russian cooperation parties. The preparatory process for the programme was commenced in the summer 2013 with the establishment of the Joint Programming Committee (JPC) composed of an equal number of central government and regional level representatives of both participating countries. The JPC had the overall responsibility for the preparation of the programme. The preparatory work was assisted by a joint regional task force specifically appointed for this purpose. The Joint Regional Task Force (RTF) has been dealing with the objectives and the content of the programme, and it represented the regional level from both countries. A representative of the Commission has participated