The European Commission approved the ETC programmes 7 January 2008
On the last workday before Christmas the European Commission approved the cross-border European Territorial Programmes implemented with the participation of Hungary, namely: the Hungarian-Romanian and Hungarian-Slovak programmes (in which case Hungary is the designated Managing Authority), as well as the Austrian-Hungarian and Slovenian-Hungarian programmes.
In addition, Hungary will also participate in two trans-national cooperation programme, out of which the Brussels committee approved the Central European Programme at the beginning of December 2007, whilst the South-Eastern European Programme was approved within the framework of the round that took place before Christmas.
The approval of the above-specified operational programmes paves the way for convening the first meetings of the Joint Monitoring Committees and the approval of the other documents needed for launching the programmes (implementation manual, guidelines for applicants, etc.). The first calls for applications will be issued following this, and are expected to be announced during Spring 2008.