Questions about b-Solutions I (Which territories are eligible?)

I will publish here most relevant questions posed by potential applicants to b-Solutions Call for Proposals.

Today, a stakeholder from the Romanian-Moldovan border asked:

Does the initiative cover the EU external Borders? In a particular case, we are interested in formulating an application form concerning environmental/public health services with a cross-border dimension shared between Romania and Republic of Moldova.

A further question was:

The Call for Proposal states that At least one co-applicant must be an entity from the other side(s) of the border, preferably a peer of the main applicant (page 9/13) and on the other hand, all applicants shall be located in an EU member state (page 9/13). Under these terms, if the leader is a Romanian organization and the co-applicant is an organization from the Republic of Moldova, is the proposal eligible?

Unfortunately, the answer is "no" to both questions:

We have already shown our regret, but the CB Review, the Communication and subsequent measures, like this b-Solutions Call, only focus on internal EU/EFTA land borders. We have asked for a similar initiative for maritime borders, as well as for the territories of the current ENI and IPA CBC programmes, and the proposal has been warmly welcomed but it corresponds to other policy areas and first b-Solutions will be implemented in EU internal land borders.

In page 4 of the Call, sub-chapter 1.2 b-Solutions, the second paragraph states: The general objective of b-solutions is to identify and promote sustainable methods of resolving border obstacles of a legal and/or administrative nature along EU internal land borders.

The third paragraph in same page also states: Public authorities should seize the opportunity offered by b-solutions to test effective ways —in the form of pilot actions— of overcoming border obstacles of a legal and/or administrative nature along EU internal land borders (including also the neighbouring EFTA countries).

In page 6, chapter 2 on Thematic coverage, third paragraph: As stated, the Commission’s desire is to see projects proposed that bring concrete, durable, effective and replicable solutions to address cross-border obstacles of a legal and/or administrative nature along EU internal land borders.

And, in page 9, chapter 3 on Eligible organizations, when establishing the principles which apply to all eligible applicants, the first bullet point states: All applicants shall be located in an EU Member State (or neighbouring EFTA country) and their territories share at least one EU internal land border with another EU Member State/EFTA country.

Therefore, it is very clearly stated several times which territories are eligible for both the b-solution identified and the applicants: EU/EFTA internal land borders.

Anyway, it is very good to draw the attention on those very dynamic cross-border areas which are not (yet) included in Interreg.