Interact is an experienced international team who are passionate about cooperation. Cooperation can be complex; our job is to make it easier, that ensure the exchange of experience, information and innovation in order to promote best practice and make cooperation easier. We achieve this through targeted events, publications and tools.
The services are targeted at cooperation programmes under the European Territorial Cooperation (ETC) objective of Cohesion Policy 2014-2020 - known as Interreg. These programmes jointly tackle common challenges and find shared solutions in fields such as health, environment, research, education, transport, sustainable energy and more.
Interact covers the Member States of the European Union, as well as Norway and Switzerland. We also support programmes in pre-accession and European Neighbourhood countries. Interact has become a well-established organisation that plays an important role in Interreg, in cooperation between EU Member States and EU regions, and along the external borders of the EU. Cooperation is at the heart of all we do. We work continuously and with determination to make cooperation more streamlined, because we believe in it. Which is why our slogan for the 2014-2020 programming period is cooperation works.
Interact is a decentralised organisation with a horizontal team structure. Four Interact Offices deliver zone and EU-wide services:
- Interact Office Turku, Finland
- Interact Office Valencia, Spain
- Interact Office Viborg, Denmark
- Interact Office Vienna, Austria
Overall programme coordination is ensured by the Interact Secretariat and the Managing Authority located in Bratislava, Slovakia. The Certifying Authority and the Audit Authority are also based in Slovakia, Bratislava. The Monitoring Committee (MC) consists of the 28 Member States, Norway and Switzerland.
Interact I (2002-2006) primarily focused on the immediate needs to support the Interreg initiative. It provided support for the implementation of the three strands of Interreg (Cross-border, Transnational and Interregional programmes) to increase efficiency, effectiveness and quality. Unlike the current programme, Interact funded projects to develop local and regional initiatives and contribute to the development of the institutions involved in Interreg.
Interact II (2007-2013) went on to support the Interreg community as well as IPA and ENPI CBC programmes (EU external borders). In order to do so, Interact resorted to harmonised tools (HIT, eMS, KEEP, European Cooperation Day, Interreg branding) and innovative ways of cooperation such as macro-regional strategies.
Interact III (2014-2020) went in line with the new requirements of the Interreg initiative striving towards a more result-oriented approach. The focus of the programme is on thematic objective 11 – namely, Capacity Building – with three specific objectives:
- improve the management capacity of Interreg programmes
- improve the Interreg capacity in capturing/communicating project results
- improve the implementation of new ways of cooperation
Interact IV will support the 2021-2027 funding period, and in particular the Interreg and wider cooperation community.
