Programme Documents

The European Commission adopted the Interreg VB Cooperation Programme for the Northern Periphery and Arctic 2014-2020 on 16th December 2014.  

As part of the programme preparation, the Ex Ante evaluators carried out a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of the NPA 2014-2020. The SEA Report underwent a public consultation in January-February 2014. In total, 10 responses were received.  

The outcome of the public consultation of the Strategic Environmental Assessment for the NPA 2014-2020 confirmed the conclusions of the SEA Report; the programme is unlikely to have any significant negative impacts on the environment. Instead, the SEA Report identifies the potential for significant positive environmental effects.  

Based on the feedback received, the Monitoring Committee concluded that there was no need for major changes to the SEA Report or the NPA 2014-2020 Cooperation Programme document. However, some comments and suggestions were as viewed as relevant and these were incorporated as minor updates.  

Updates to the SEA Report:

• The Atlantic Ocean Strategy added to the section on relevant environmental strategies, programmes and policies.
• Ocean acidification mentioned more explicitly in the environmental SWOT and threats analysis
• The Swedish Generation Objective added in connection with the Swedish subsection.

Updates to the Cooperation Programme document:

• Environmental aspects to the description of actions supported added under Priority Axis 1 and Priority Axis 2.
• Ocean acidification added to the description of actions supported under Priority Axis 4.
• The environmental indicators were added to the annex of the reader-friendly Cooperation Programme document for programme use, not to the formal European Commission database (SFC2014).