At its first meeting on 4th June, the Programme Planning Group for the NPA 2021-2027 constituted itself and adopted Rules of Procedure.

A content sub group was set up with 4 regional representatives, who will assist the PPG and work between meetings to advance the drafting process. They will act as a sounding board for the drafting team.

A core drafter was appointed, Ms Jenny Bergkvist, who is Head of the Managing Authority for the Interreg Botnia-Atlantica Programme at the County Administrative Board of Västerbotten, Sweden.

The PPG decided to kick off 4 work streams, including the area analysis, activities to coordinate with regional stakeholders and other Interreg programmes, actions to involve relevant programme partners, as well as the selection of the Managing Authority and the procedure for setting up a Joint Secretariat.

The selected consultants for the area analysis, the European Policies Research Centre, presented their plans for how to approach the task. At the next PPG meeting, a final draft area analysis will be presented.

Finally, a milestone delivery plan for the work streams was adopted.

The next scheduled meetings are a content sub group meeting on 30th June, and a PPG meeting on 22nd September.