European Neighbourhood Instrument Hungary-Slovakia-Romania-Ukraine Cross-border Cooperation Programme 2014-2020 As amended on 19 December 2019 JOINT OPERATIONAL PROGRAMME Approved by the participating countries on 25 June 2015, amended on 23 November 2016 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................................................ 5 1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 6 2 Definition of the programme area ......................................................................................................... 8 2.1 Participating countries and the Programme area ................................................................................. 8 2.2 Core regions ........................................................................................................................................... 8 2.3 Adjoining regions ................................................................................................................................... 8 2.4 Major social, economic or cultural centres .......................................................................................... 12 2.5 Map of the programme area ............................................................................................................... 14 2.6 Intention to make use of Article 10(5) of Regulation (EU) No 232/2014 ............................................. 15 3 Analysis of the programme area .......................................................................................................... 16 3.1 General introduction of the area ......................................................................................................... 16 3.2 Local culture and preservation of historical heritage (TO3) ................................................................ 17 3.3 Environmental protection, climate change mitigation and adaptation (TO6) .................................... 18 3.4 Accessibility to the regions, development of sustainable and climate-proof transport and communication networks and systems (TO7) ................................................................................................... 20 3.5 Common challenges in the field of safety and security (TO8) .............................................................. 21 3.6 Main challenges and needs to be addressed by the programme from cross-border aspect, regarding economic, social, environmental and governance in line with future regional development trends ............... 22 3.7 Main potentials of the cooperation area in line with the regional capacity available ........................ 24 3.8 Lessons learnt from previous experiences in cross-border programmes ............................................. 26 4 Programme's strategy ......................................................................................................................... 29 4.1 General objective and vision of the joint operational programme ...................................................... 29 4.2 Selection process for the Thematic Objectives ..................................................................................... 29 4.3 Selected thematic objectives ............................................................................................................... 31 4.4 Planned activities within the selected thematic objectives ................................................................. 31 4.5 Hierarchy of the vision, objectives and priorities of the Programme ................................................... 35 4.6 Result indicators .................................................................................................................................. 37 4.7 Expected outputs, output indicators .................................................................................................... 40 4.8 Relation between the ENI strategic objectives and the thematic objectives of the Programme ......... 43 4.9 Contribution and coherence with the planned interventions towards macro-regional strategies and other Union-financed programmes in the countries and regions concerned ................................................... 43 4.10 Coherence with national, regional and other strategies and policies.................................................. 51 4.11 Coherence with EUSDR ........................................................................................................................ 56 5 Structures and appointment of the competent authorities and management bodies ........................... 59 5.1 Programme level bodies ...................................................................................................................... 59 5.1.1 Composition of the Joint Monitoring Committee and tasks ........................................................... 61 2 5.1.2 Managing Authority and its designation process ............................................................................ 63 5.1.3 Procedure for setting up the Joint Technical Secretariat ................................................................ 66 5.1.4 Intermediate body .......................................................................................................................... 69 5.1.5 Audit Authority and the members of the group of auditors ........................................................... 70 5.2 National level bodies ........................................................................................................................... 71 5.2.1 National authorities of all participating countries .......................................................................... 71 5.2.2 Control contact points, national controllers and auditors .............................................................. 72 6 Programme implementation ............................................................................................................... 76 6.1 Summary description of the management and control systems ......................................................... 76 6.2 Description of project selection procedures ......................................................................................... 79 6.2.1 Open Call for proposals procedure ................................................................................................. 79 6.2.2 The restricted call for proposals procedure .................................................................................... 80 6.2.3 Complaint handling procedure ....................................................................................................... 81 6.3 Provisional indicative time-frame for programme implementation .................................................... 82 6.4 Description per priority of nature of support ....................................................................................... 83 6.5 Description of planned use of technical assistance and applicable contract award procedures ......... 83 6.6 Description of the monitoring and evaluation systems ....................................................................... 84 3. ................................................................................................................................................................... 86 6.7 Information on fulfilment of regulatory requirements laid down in Directive 2001/42/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council .......................................................................................................... 87 The SEA process in line with the EC Directive and national legislations ......................................................... 87 The content of the Environmental Report in line with the EC Directive ......................................................... 88 Results of the Strategic Environmental Assessment process: ........................................................................ 88 6.8 Rules on eligibility of expenditure ........................................................................................................ 91 6.9 Irregularities and recoveries: Apportionment of liabilities among the participating countries ........... 91 6.10 Rules of transfer, use and monitoring of co-financing ......................................................................... 92 6.11 Description of IT systems for the reporting and exchange of computerised data between the Managing Authority and the Commission ........................................................................................................ 93 6.12 Principles of communication ................................................................................................................ 94 6.13 Language(s) adopted by the programme ............................................................................................ 95 7 Indicative financial plan ....................................................................................................................... 96 7.1 Thematic objectives by source of funding ............................................................................................ 96 7.2 Programme financial table .................................................................................................................. 97 8 Risk analysis and mitigating measures ................................................................................................