SVETLOGORSK, June 05. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia plans to allocate about 200 million euros by 2020 to implement projects within the European Union's cross-border cooperation programmes, the director of the Russian Regional Development Ministry’s Department for International Relations, Promotion of Interregional and Cross-border Cooperation, Konstantin Shkred, told ITAR-TASS on Thursday.

Russia wants to participate in bilateral programmes for cross-border cooperation with Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Finland, Sweden and Estonia, Shkred said on the sidelines of an international forum for partner regions of Russia’s Kaliningrad region, being held in the resort town of Svetlogorsk.

Besides, Russia “is considering the possibility of joining the (European Union's) Baltic Sea Region Program and the Northern Periphery Programme uniting Arctic regions”, he said.

The program’s overall budget is estimated at 400 billion euros, including 200 million euros Russian funds.

“The Ministry of Regional Development together with the Foreign Ministry and the Finance Ministry are developing financing mechanisms for the cross-border cooperation programmes in 2014-2020,” Shkred said, adding that projects of different Russian regions were being selected at the same time to be presented for inclusion in bilateral program.

Priority was given to projects connected with cross-border infrastructure development, construction of border crossing checkpoints, development of small and medium-sized businesses, ecology and environment protection, he said.

Shkred noted that more than 200 various projects had been implemented within the European Union's cross-border cooperation programme in 2007-2013. The total budget of programmes with the participation of the Kaliningrad region reached 145 million euros, more than a third of which was allocated by Russia.