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Russia, EU drafting 7 cross-border cooperation programs for 2021-2027

These programs are geared to promote socio-economic development of border regions in neighboring countries

BRUSSELS, January 27. /TASS/. Russia and the European Union are drafting seven new practical programs of cross-border cooperation for 2021-2027, despite the ongoing crisis in bilateral relations, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the European Union Vladimir Chizhov said on Monday.

"Our relations with the European Union have never been completely frozen, even in conditions of the current crisis. Cooperation between the Committee of the Regions and corresponding Russian structures continues, as does the implementation of the cross-border cooperation programs," he said at a conference on cross-border cooperation between Russia and the European Union in Brussels.

"Now, a new generation of such programs is being discussed for 2021-2027. It means that the European Union’s long-term financial plan has future. There are seven such programs as of today. They involve several European Union nations and, correspondingly, several Russian northwestern regions bordering the European Union," he said. "Even when the European Union imposed its notorious unilateral restrictive measures against Russia, those measures has special reservations that they are not applicable to cross-border cooperation. So, this area of cooperation was preserved upon the sides’ agreement."

Russia is currently maintaining cross-border cooperation with six EU nations, namely Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Sweden, and Norway, which is not a EU member. Russia also participates in the multilateral cross-border cooperation program with the European Union, Interreg. Baltic Region and enjoys an observer status in a similar program Interreg. Northern Periphery and Arctic.

These programs are geared to promote socio-economic development of border regions in neighboring countries, environment protection, tourism, modernization of transport infrastructure and border checkpoints, and to help preserve cultural and historical heritage.

The programs encourage close contacts between the authorities of and people living in border regions in neighboring countries to help them see that cooperation with Russia is in their interests.

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