As many as 3 events of our Programme were waiting for the participants of this year's Cross-border Cooperation Congress in Lublin. These were: panel discussion, Grants’ Fair and Partners’ Forum.

The guests of the panel discussion “Poland-Ukraine - time for even deeper cross-border relations” summarised the Programme's achievements in the past years. They unanimously emphasised that they could not only be measured by the kilometres of roads, trails and water pipelines built, the number of facilities, equipment purchased or events organised, but also by the great value of the interpersonal ties which were created as a result of the projects. These were further strengthened by the attitude of the Polish beneficiaries and Programme staff in the face of Russian aggression, who spontaneously rushed to help their partners in Ukraine.

We had a deep need with the whole team to react somehow to this situation as a Programme, because after all we are a cooperation programme with Ukraine. We did our best, said Rafał Baliński, Director of the Department of Territorial Cooperation in the Ministry of Development Funds and Regional Policy, representing the Managing Authority of the Programme.

This experience has shown that we are not only partners, but also neighbours and friends, concluded Tetiana Tytarchuk from the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.

The panel was also attended by: Dr Leszek Buller - Director of the Center of European Projects, Oleksandr Bilak from the Zakarpattia Oblast Military Administration and Dr Paweł Wais - Director of the Department of Regional Development at the Marshall Office of the Podkarpackie Voivodeship. The discussion was moderated by Andrzej Słodki, Head of the Joint Technical Secretariat of the Programme.

The next event, the Grants' Fair, served the purpose of presenting the new edition of the Programme, i.e. Interreg NEXT Poland-Ukraine 2021-2027. Following the presentation, participants had the opportunity to ask questions live. Both events were also broadcast on social media.

Our Programme block ended with the Partners’ Forum, during which - in a dynamic, face-to-face B2B format - future applicants had the opportunity to meet and select potential partners and identify fields of cooperation. 100 representatives of organisations and institutions from Poland and Ukraine were qualified to participate in this part of the Congress.

In total, the entire Cross-border Cooperation Congress, whose main organiser was the City of Lublin, was attended by nearly half a thousand people. In addition, hundreds of viewers followed the online broadcast.

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Cross-border Cooperation Congress 2022