In the beginning of 2022, traditionally we would like to shortly summarize the Programme implementation and our common achievements in the passing year. Facing old and new challenges we constantly focused on supporting our beneficiaries – assisting them in implementation and projects completion as well as signing last grant contracts for micro-projects. We delivered numerous workshops, trainings and held many meetings with projects beneficiaries. Despite the limited possibilities in the organization of traditional events, we managed to widely promote the Programme through our organization and participation in the conferences and forums as well as capitalizing so far projects achievements. The main channel of spreading the information  about the Programme and promoting its results are  the Programme website and FB fanpage.

Although the pace of preparation of the new Programme edition 2021-2027 has been slowed down due to the political issues taking place on the Programme area, certain important steps have also been made in order to move forward with that programming.

Below we present the Programme state of play at the end of 2021, examples of projects results as well as selected information on our last year activities.

The year 2021 brought subsequent completed projects among each of the three project’s types in the Programme. By the end of 2021, out of the 163 contracted projects, as many as 77 were completed, 86 projects are still being implemented.

The Programme so far co-financed projects with the total amount of 128.5 M EUR. Most of that sum – over 80% was spent on the implemention of regular projects.

The co-financing paid out to the LIPs, regular and micro-projects, but above all, the beneficiairies’ efforts, enabled achieving many tangible results and effects in all 14 regions covered by the Programme and in all 4 Thematic objectives that Programme addresses: HERITAGE, ACCESSIBILITY, SECURITY and BORDERS. There are too many to list them all, but we would like to present you at least some examples.

Below numbers in circles relfect total number of completed projects we have under each thematic objective. The examples described relate only to projects completed in 2021.

The majority of so far completed projects were implemented under the HERITAGE objective. The Programme strongly encouraged projects protecting and promoting natural and historical heritage on its area. We supported activities to bring the tradition of oil extraction in 19^th century in Sanok (PL) and Boryslav Commune (UA) (project OilCradle) and promoted oil heritage in Podkarpackie Voivodship and Lviv Oblast (project LUKASIEWICZ).

The Programme helped to save the unique wooden architecture in the Carpathians. We supported inter alia the:

• preservation of 20 wooden sacral architecture objects in Poland and Ukraine and promoted them in 12 virtual tours (project WoodenTreasure);
• development of a touristic cross-border Wooden Architecture Route (project WoodenRoute);
• promoting the potential tourist infrastructure of wooden heritage in the Podkarpackie Voivodeship and Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Zakarpattya Oblasts (project WoodenArch).

Thanks to the Programme support, two 18^th century historical objects, one in Sokółka (PL) and one in Hrodna (BY), related to Antoni Tyzenhauz were restored and 60 km long cross-border bike trial "Tyzenhauz Trail" was opened (project TYZENHAUZ).

The Programme significantly contributed also to the promotion and preservation of the natural heritage. For example, a new sewage treatment plant in Žabinka (BY) was constructed to improve the cleanliness of waters in the Bug River basin as well as innovative ecological path created (project MUCHAVIEC). Eight new touristic routes devoted to the nature were created in Volyn Oblast and Podkarpackie Voivodeship (project 4_SEASONS). We also financed the unique touristic brand creation to promote natural heritage in the border area between Włodawa Commune (PL) and Shatsk Raion (UA) (project UPLA).

We have been improving the accessibility and road safety on the whole borderland by investing in roads infrastructure and road mainteinance equipment. To give some examples - we upgraded and improved the road No. 698 in Mazowieckie Voivodship and renovated the bridge on the Toczna River in Łosice (PL) (project DW698). We supported the accessibility of the Polish-Ukrainian border crossing Malhowice-Nyzhankovychi by extending and rebuilding 7 km of the regional road No. 885 (project LIP885). The roads were modernised in Nowy Dwór Municipality (PL) and in Hrodna Oblast (project NODGRO). The quality and capacity of the P-16 road section in Podlaskie Voivodship and Brest Oblast was also improved (project SafeRoad). We helped to create the Cross border Network for Sustainable Transport Governance with Białostocki Poviat and the Hrodna Oblast and by modernizing several parts of roads in both these regions we ease the access to the Augustów Canal (project TransGoverNet).

Many efforts were concentrated on ensuring the protection of people and environment. Due to the completed projects, the fire and emergency units will increase their ability to react quickly and effectively to emergency situations in the borderland between Poland, Belarus and Ukraine. The Programme helped 8 volunteer fire department units in Siemiatycze Commune (PL) to buy special rescue equipment and 9 firefighting cars as well as Hrodna Oblast to purchase 2 chemical rescue cars. That shall increase the inhabitants safety in the region (project EcoChem). The complex cooperation system for prevention and response to natural and man-made disasters was initiated between 4 Polish and Ukrainian regional fire-service units (project SECINCARP). We supported also establishing the cooperation of Mazowieckie Voivodship (Siedlce, Korczew Commune) and Volyn Oblast rescue units and financed creation of the modern rescue infrastructure as well as the new equipment such as fire-trucks, defibrillators, high-pressure compressors etc. (project COORDINATION).  

Thanks to the Programme financing, 32 volunteer fire departments in Lubelskie Voivodeship and 15 local, newly created fire brigades in Volyn Oblast were equipped and provided with joint trainings and study visits. All that to increase the safety of road users in both regions (project PUFL). We helped with the reconstruction and equipping of the fire station in Kamianets (BY) and two training centers for the rescuers in Brest (BY) and Hrodna (BY) (project SAFETY).

Several health and social related initiatives were also completed. To name just two – thanks to the Programme grant and purchased medical and laboratory equipment two hospitals from Biała Podlaska (PL) and Brest (BY) are now better prepared for the mass outbreaks of infectious diseases on Polish-Belarusian cross-border area by helping to prevent infectious diseases (project EpidSafe). On the southeast part of the Programme area, we supported cooperation between Rzeszów (PL) and Vynohradiv (UA) aimed at the protection of animals – centres responsible for care over stray animals were renovated and equipped and control of the stray animals’ population and their immunization. That shall minimize the epidemiological threats related to animals’ diseases (project CBC4animals).

Many HEALTH projects in the Polish-Belarusian and Polish-Ukrainian partnerships are expected to complete activities in 2022. We wait for their results.

Finally, under the thematic objective BORDERS, we contributed to  improve security and mobility on the eastern external border of the EU through modernization of the rail border crossing in Siemianówka (PL) and Svislach (BY), including the reconstruction of the building for passengers service and equipment for the control of cisterns and railway carriages as well as equipment for monitoring the tracks and the area of passage (project SIEMIANOWKA). We helped to optimize the border traffic operations of Polish and Ukrainian border guards. Two partner universities from Lublin and Lutsk organized joint trainings for 260 border guards' staff on competences and qualifications as well as postgraduate studies in security and crisis management for 60 participants. All that to enhance qualifications of border services of both countries and create base for their future cooperation (project FriendlyBorders). The Programme provided also support to improve the quality of customs services and reduce time of crossing the border in point in Sławatycze (PL) and Damačava (BY) (project WeightComplex). 

As mentioned above, the list of the projects’ achievements is much longer, we just wanted to mentioned few examples of projects completed last year. Information on all projects, including those already finalized, may be easily found in the Projects tab of this page, using Search project.

The Programme beneficiaries carried out enormous work last year what was closely interlinked with activities of the JTS and three Programme branch offices (Brest, Lviv, Rzeszów). And here we would like to present their short summary.

We supported beneficiaries with knowledge and expertise

• 3 trainings on implementation/closure for LIPs and regular projects
• 10 trainings on project implementation and closure for micro-projects
• individual consultations on contracting for PBU3 micro-projects beneficiaries
• 6 x 3-days communication workshops for LIPs, regular and micro-projects

We promoted the Programme and spread its results through:

Events

• Programme annual event “This is not science fiction!”,
• ECDay in three countries,
• 4 capitalization meetings "Sharing knowledge and experience" (historical and cultural heritage, natural heritage, health protection and social services, security),
• International Scientific Conference “Health security in the PBU cross-border cooperation area”,
• 30 virtual lessons "How are you doing?" with pupils from all three countries,
• Action promoting security – distribution of 500 CO detectors across the Programme area,
• As every year, we also participated as partners in several events organized by other parties (such as the XXX Economic Forum in Karpacz, Cross-border Cooperation Congress in Lublin, Local Development Forum in Truskavets, Economic Forum in Lviv etc.), and numerous events organized by PBU projects in all three countries (conferences, openings, grant contracts signatures etc.).

Publications/videos

• New Micro-projects publication (in 3 languages),
• Update of LIPs and Regular projects (in 3 languages) publications,
• Update of Fact & Figures,
• Cross-borderer 2021,
• Project Stories publication,
• 6 thematic videos PBU Programme in the camera eye,
• 3 virtual tour movies showing projects implemented in PL, BY and UA,
• Scientific publication "Health - Security in the area of the Poland-Belarus-Ukraine Cross-border Cooperation Programme".

Contests

• 2 movie contests - Following the PBU projects,
• 1 photo contest - Reveal the uniqueness of PBU projects.
• 7 contests on the Programme Facebook fan page.

Programme website

We reach our audience with 111 different news on the website, including our regular content:

• 10 Projects stories,
• 12 Projects of the week,
• 8 articles "Holidays with PBU Projects",
• Map of the projects localization.

In 2021 we counted 272 342 entries on the Programme website including 176 877 unique users (UU). The average time of visiting the website was approx. 9 min.

Programme Facebook fan page

• the Programme fan page in 2021 reached over 94 500 people,
• total number of subscribers (regular followers) is 2302,
• the number of subscribers increased by approx. 35% comparing to the previous year,
• we published 199 posts on the Programme fan page.

The most popular posts were the one devoted to the movie "Virtual tour on PBU projects in Poland” (13 458 recipients) and “ Project of the week – SOSRescue” (11 863 recipients).

When it comes to the comparison with fan pages of other CBC programmes, the PBU FB profile, operating only since March 2018, is the 2^nd most popular CBC programme page.

We moved forward with preparation of the 2021-2027 Programme:

• Programme strategic part was prepared and consulted with the public.
• Further chapters of the Programme document were drafted.
• Report from the public consultations published on the Programme website.
• Direct award LIPs:

         - 10 LIPs proposals were prepared

         - 3 JPC meetings were held to discuss each of them with their promoters

         - JTS carried out their assessment and provided recommendations

• Strategic Environmental Assessment was carried out, consultations held and SEA Report prepared in four languages.
• Methodology of the Programme indicators was prepared and their target values proposed.
• MA and JTS worked over several issues such as the IT system, application form, payments and reporting rules, simplified costs.