EU FUNDS

EU's funding structure and the associated instruments and programmes have been modified for the new 2007-2013 budgetary period. While some of the previous programmes will continue to run in this new period, some programmes have been merged for simplification and some entirely new ones have been launched.

EU provides financial aid for all types of organisations including -companies, public bodies, universities and NGOs situated mainly in the Member States, however certain programmes target also Non-Member States. Small, medium and large sized projects can be financed by the EU in various fields from agriculture to education, from environment to transport.

This section introduces the funding opportunities of the EU for the 2007-2013 financial period structured in five categories:

Pre-Accession Assistance: EU provides funding for candidate countries and potential candidate countries in order to support their efforts to enhance political, economic and institutional reforms. This comprises a broad range of financial support for various types of projects in the fields of agriculture, environment, transport, IT, human rights, civil society, media, etc.

External Assistance: EU's external assistance target other countries than the Member States and aims to support various types of reforms, political and economic stability, as well as countries or regions in crisis.

Regional Assistance: The regional assistance accounts for a larger portion of the expenditures and finances regional development within the Member States in order to obtain economic and social prosperity and to reduce the gaps in development between regions.

Natural Resources: The Natural Resources section comprises several funding opportunities in the fields of agriculture, rural development, environment and fisheries.

Community Programmes: EU provides financial assistance through various community programmes in a broad range of fields such as research, competitiveness and innovation, media, education, health, youth, culture, etc. Different organisations, bodies and companies from all Member States can participate, as well as participants from Non-Member States according to their agreements with the EU.