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ENI CBC Stories
Projects change people’s lives!

Bridging the gap between students and businesses

Economic Development
Kolarctic

What can university students do to contribute to your business development? This is what Peter Fischer, BRIDGE project manager, asked companies and small businesses in the neighbourhood, and the answer was clear: students can use their knowledge to help us resolve small problems, and we can provide them with real working life experiences. This is how the initiative BRIDGE came up: a cross-border network of five universities where students and businesses cooperate with a two-fold objective. On one hand, increasing the hands-on skills of the university graduates, and on the other, helping small businesses to further develop. BRIDGE is a project funded by Kolarctic CBC programme.

The green economy potential to engage marginalised youth

People-to-People
Mediterranean Sea Basin

In recent years, the transition from education to work has become more prolonged and unpredictable. In fact, due to different and successive crises, many young people find themselves neither in employment nor in education and training (NEET).  And youth with little or no education is highly marginalised, and increasingly far from jobs. At the same time, there is still an unexploited potential in green economy: environment protection can provide the base for new work opportunities. Combining these two fields – the social and the environmental – is the purpose of the RESMYLE project, which aims at the socio-professional integration of young people into the job market.

Less money for heating bills: the eco-renovation of public universities

Environment
Mediterranean Sea Basin
“Nobody doubts the rationality of investing in energy efficiency. But experience and funds are limited and the  interventions are costly and complex. While national initiatives and international donor programmes are available, they have one drawback; you work alone. This is where ENI CBC MED comes in: it is a fantastic programme as it is not only a theoretical one, it is more of a concrete programme, enabling the delivery of real change. This is its main added value, compared to others”

Dr Imad Ibrik from the An-Najah University in Palestine

When a lake builds communities’ life

Environment
Estonia-Russia

Lake Peipsi is a unique water body. It is the biggest transboundary lake in Europe shared by Estonia and Russia. For more than a decade this natural resource has been a focal point for any cross-border initiative between the two countries. Can one single CBC project improve lake water quality, boost local businesses, empower neighbouring communities and even set milestones for re-establishing water connections between two countries? Yes, it can! Meet the project “Common Peipsi” co-funded by Estonia-Russia CBC programme.

A single tool to answer all questions from science to politics for the sake of the Gulf of Finland

Environment
Estonia-Russia
“I observed that the scientific information available often is not used by the decision makers. They tend to look at things from a wider perspective, and science is often perceived as too complicated. In order to bring policy makers and scientists closer, I wanted to create an umbrella tool that would facilitate their communication”

Jonne Kotta, Estonian Marine Institute (EMI), University of Tartu

Turning city rivers into sunbathing beaches

Environment
Latvia-Russia

Riversides cleaned, with lighting system, bins, benches installed, and even a place to sunbathe.  “When a place is attractive, it becomes like glue, it sticks you to the territory and that is what we want to do, attract visitors and glue them to our cities”. Sticky Urban Areas is the name and the main idea behind the project funded by Latvia-Russia CBC programme, with the objective to transform natural resources into attractive areas for inhabitants and visitors. Two municipal administrations – Rēzekne City Council in Latvia (LV) and Ostrov District Administration in Russia (RU) – are very concerned about the situation in their cities. Rēzekne is far away from the capital, and not being a seaside city does not help; and Ostrov – located in the eastern part of a huge country like Russia – is often forgotten when it comes to hauling financial resources and attracting businesses. Yet, both places have immense potential, and an untapped opportunity for businesses to thrive and to get tourists moving: their natural resources, especially, their rivers.

Green and sustainable buildings to save energy and challenge the high north

Environment
Kolarctic
“Life in the north is not always easy, and our regions are not always the most hospitable. From the distance everything looks like snow and skiing, but the urban environment is a totally different matter. The quality of buildings and housing is crucial for quality of life in our latitude”.

Bjørn R Sørensen, professor at the Arctic University of Norway.

“I want my grandchildren to also enjoy my lake: it’s time for a good sewage system!”

Environment
Poland-Belarus-Ukraine
“I come from this area; I live near the Svityaz lake. I have been enjoying the lake all my life and I want my grandchildren to enjoy it too”

Viktor Pleytukh, deputy head of Shatsk District State Administration of Volyn Region

Sensor technologies to boost rail traffic through the Arctic

Infrastructure
Kolarctic

How can longer, faster and more frequent trains cross some Arctic regions where the ground was frozen all year long, and now is melting? How can increasing levels of safe railway transport be guaranteed, when temperatures can vary from +35° to -40° and weather conditions are at the harshest? An ENI CBC project – Arinka II – is dealing with this challenge, working to make the Kolarctic railway network more reliable and effective.  And new sensor technologies are at the forefront of the effort.

One river, two countries, the same goal: reducing nutrient inputs to save it

Environment
Estonia-Russia
“Each of these two countries, Estonia and Russia, must reduce the level of pollution it is throwing into the Narva River: they both have defined targets to reach, but the problem is that they calculate them differently. We are experts, and we think that we are talking about the same thing. But, in reality, we refer to things that have different meaning for each of us. This is where the problem lays: and this is what this project is trying to change”

Alvina Reihan from the Tallinn University of Technology, the lead beneficiary organisation.

Living safely along the Tisza river banks

Environment
Hungary-Slovakia-Romania-Ukraine
“Many writers describe Tisza as a river of gentle, incredible beauty, and  at the same time as a river with its own, harsh temperament. The people of Zatissianschyna know it: they were twice affected by its catastrophic flooding, in 1998 and 2001. Thanks to this project, we want them to live safely on the Tisza’s bank, to forget the fear and to only enjoy its beauty!” 

Marina Skral, the Head of the International Cooperation Division of Tisza River Basin Water Resources Directorate.

E-commerce: Bringing Local Farmers Right to your Table

Economic Development
Black Sea Basin

White brined cheese from Bulgaria, berries from the Republic of Moldova, Greek virgin olive oil, tomatoes from Romania, Turkish strawberries and honey from Ukraine. What do these products have in common? Are they the main ingredients to a crazy recipe? Not at all! These are all special traditional agricultural products grown by local farmers all around the Black Sea basin. Apart from being delicious, they have immense potential for regional branding and international trading. This is exactly what AGRITRADENET is about: supporting and empowering local farmers so that they become part of a business network and can trade across borders with top-quality products. This initiative is funded under the ENI CBC Black Sea Basin programme.

When Art is the key to vulnerable kids

People-to-People
Latvia-Lithuania-Belarus

They come mostly from rural areas, and they are vulnerable children: they have slight intellectual disabilities, motion or neurological disorders, behavioural and emotional problems. They come from social-risk, or refugee families. And now, after experiencing exclusion and isolation, they can go back to an active social life, thanks to painting, sculpture, music. Because art therapy makes miracles. It happens across the borders between Lithuania and Belarus.

Pure tap water for 170.000 people in Pskov

Environment
Latvia-Russia

Water is life, it is everywhere at our disposal, and we take it for granted: but this precious resource is limited, and threatened by pollution, waste, mismanagement. That is why a cross border project between Latvia and Russia is today working not only to improve the quantity and quality of drinkable water, but also to make people understand how important a careful use of this priceless source of life is.

Crafts & cooperation: opportunities for growth

Economic Development
Latvia-Russia

Pottery, wood carving, smithcraft, loom weaving, leathercraft… This is far not the full list of skills mastered by the craftsmen from the border regions of Latvia and Russia. They create amazing, unique hand-made products which, however, do not always reach potential buyers. How can an EU-funded project help artisans to turn their passion into a successful business? And can old crafts boost tourism potential of the cross-border area? The “Craftmanship without borders” project, co-funded by Latvia-Russia CBC programme, has got the answers.

CULTURE OPEN – Speaking the unique language of culture

People-to-People
Karelia

“Culture is probably the best way to integrate migrants and people with disabilities in our cities. There is no need to speak. People usually dance and sing about the same things. Culture is the best way to reach someone’s heart and build trust”. Migrants and people with disabilities are two quite different types of groups. They have different needs and concerns. However, they often face the same challenges: the feeling of isolation, feeling unheard or not integrated in society. Culture Open is a project, financed under ENI CBC Karelia programme, that aims at engaging socially vulnerable groups in the cities of Petrozavodsk (RU) and Joensuu (FI) by making them feel the protagonists in the cultural life of the cities.

Flippers and diving masks to enjoy the underwater museum of the Black Sea

People-to-People
Black Sea Basin

Vessels, buildings, statues, artefacts, sites, even human remains: this is all “underwater cultural heritage”, defined by UNESCO as human traces with cultural, historical or archaeological character, that have been under water for at least 100 years. Definitely, a heritage worth preserving and object of interest for the most curious minds. The ENI CBC TREASURE project has put the underwater remains of the Black Sea Basin at the centre of its efforts. The initiative – financed under the ENI CBC Black Sea Basin programme – focuses on fascinating sub-aquatic archaeological rests, and offers a unique experience as an alternative to traditional tourism.

Whatever you throw into the sea will come back to you

Environment
Mediterranean Sea Basin

More than 62 million of debris are estimated to be floating in the Mediterranean Sea – one of the six areas most affected by marine litter in the world. Plastic accounts for a large part of all manmade debris. Marine litter not only endangers numerous aquatic organisms – it threatens to finish up on our plates through the food chain. An EU-funded project COMMON is taking actions in the five pilot areas of the Mediterranean – in Italy, Tunisia and Lebanon – to combat the common challenge.

TEC-MED: No elderly alone

People-to-People
Mediterranean Sea Basin

In the Mediterranean, elderly people have been particularly hit by COVID-19. The media attention has been much riveted to them but mostly as a risk group on a medical level. Isolated and lonely more than ever due to social distancing and confinement, in this unprecedented period they eminently need adequate care, both social and psychological. Emotional support, social involvement, scientific research: tackling the pandemic, an EU-funded project TEC-MED develops solutions to find some relief for older people.

#COVID19: a shelter for women victims of violence

People-to-People
Mediterranean Sea Basin

A safe-haven for women victims of violence: an emergency shelter where they (and their children) can immediately be hosted, even during the pandemic, to get away from homes where it is too dangerous for them to remain. It is happening in Tunisia, in the framework of the MedTOWN project financed by the EU within the ENI CBC MED programme. It is an example of a concrete response to the crisis unleashed across all borders by the COVID19 on the particularly fragile segment of abused women, and how a project was able to readjust its intervention to meet a new need arisen in the context of the pandemic.

The strength to heal wounds: empowerment

People-to-People
Estonia-Russia

A small team of five experts has found the recipe to support vulnerable families in coping with life challenges: learn something, develop a project, put it in practice within the family, share with the community. In a word, create your own way to heal your own wounds, from beginning to end. This is empowerment.

A database to match producers and users

Economic Development
Mediterranean Sea Basin

Do you produce fabrics for health use? Are you looking for masks, protective gloves, medical aprons? As the COVID-19 pandemic is still ravaging, there is a relentless worldwide demand of supplies: if you are a textile or a manufacturing company, here is a database that could help you out to find the right destination for your products. A “who-is-doing-what” catalogue  has been created to put in touch those who offer the production of an item or a service, with those who are looking for it.

From your kitchen to your garden: a second life to organic waste

Environment
Mediterranean Sea Basin

Organic waste from your kitchen coming back to your garden as compost? The idea is not new but very impactful for dozens of communities around the Mediterranean where selective sorting and collection of organic waste were introduced thanks to SCOW project financed by the ENPI CBC Mediterranean Sea Basin Programme. Watch in our video how a better local waste management has changed things in Galilee region (Israel).

From unique (Sicilian) sheep breed to certified (Tunisian) cheese: tradition and technologies linking the shores

Economic Development
Italy-Tunisia

A unique breed of sheep was brought by Sicilians to the North of Tunisia in the 18th century. Two centuries after, it united the researchers, local farmers and dairy producers from both shores of the Mediterranean in the Hilftrad project under the ENPI CBC Programme Italy-Tunisia. They have come together to optimize this type of sheep farming and to give added value to the milk and cheese produced as a result. Watch in our videos how export to Tunisia of the Sicilian experience in cheese certification, and promotion of traditional Sicilian cheeses among tourists and consumers, made important contributions to the local economies.

Struggling together against the pandemic

People-to-People
Poland-Belarus-Ukraine

Viruses know no borders, and so does the health struggle: thanks to an EU supported project, emergency medical services are already functioning in the cross-border areas linking Poland, Belarus and Ukraine. Ambulances and respirators are available in the hospitals to help doctors fight against the COVID-19 pandemic: the equipment delivered through the RESCUE project is serving its purpose to help border communities to face emergencies across the European frontier. 

What about bat viewing to feel history?

Economic Development
Latvia-Russia

What about going “bat viewing” at night? Sitting quietly in Luznava manor, experiencing the speed, the flying skills, the whizzing of the wings enhanced by the silence, and the waves produced by these very special nightly creatures…

ENI CBC young volunteers crossing all borders

People-to-People
IVY

“There is a need to show European citizens how many benefits the European projects have to offer and that they truly change lives” (Natalia Popielska, a young Interreg volunteer from Poland). Hundreds of young people like Natalia are leaving on this mission around Europe thanks to Interreg Volunteer Youth (IVY) initiative. IVY initiative offers young people a unique opportunity to participate as volunteers in EU funded cross-border, transnational or interregional programmes and projects, and to promote their concrete achievements through personal experience.

Better sea connections between Finland and Russia

Infrastructure
South East Finland-Russia

From the Finnish port of HaminaKotka to St. Petersburg in Russia or vice versa for a weekend? And take your car with you too! The year-round ferry boat connection between the two ports will be developed thanks to two large infrastructure projects financed under the South-East Finland – Russia CBC Programme.

Because neighbours matter


ENI CBC because neighbours matter

Sharing the same planet is like sharing the same building: roof, foundations, façade are a common concern to all neighbours. People across external European borders are all neighbours to each other: they share the same building – the planet.  And as good neighbours do, they grow up together, they give each other a hand to build a better life, they keep doors open to welcome friends. Have a look at this short video, presenting the ENI CBC community as it enters the new year and all its challenges.

 

From grape waste to anti-aging creams

Economic Development
Mediterranean Sea Basin

What to do with grape waste? Can wine-litter become a resource, and eventually be turned into cosmetics? An EU-funded project is working to make it happen, with the final goal to create work opportunities in countries stricken by economic crises. It is called BESTMEDGRAPE, and it’s a project implemented by Italy, Tunisia, France, Lebanon and Jordan, under the Mediterranean Sea Basin ENI CBC Programme.  

We watched a common sky above us despite a border on earth

People-to-People
Road Trip Project DG Regio

They come from all over Europe: Poland, Germany, Cyprus and the Netherlands. They are 19, 22, 23, and 26 years old and grew up with Schengen. Olga writes, Sellina sticks her eye to the camera, Panos presents, Wijnand makes films. In September, these four “Euro trippers” found themselves around a great adventure. On board of a van, they travelled for a month through 17 EU countries and dozens of regions, meeting the locals and living like them. They went out to see what different regions have to offer: from dancing in an electric festival in Ireland to biking through Leipzig to getting lost in a rock labyrinth in Poland. In Romania, the four youngsters went to Maramures, near the Ukrainian border, to visit two ENPI CBC projects. We met the team during the EURegions Week in Brussels. What did they learn from this experience? How did they feel living together and jumping from one country to the other?

Imatra crossing point: the multiplying effect of investments

Infrastructure
South East Finland-Russia

New life for the Imatra border crossing: waiting time has been cut from two hours to half an hour, traffic accidents have decreased, and the amount of people detected for illegal activities has practically doubled.

These are just some of the results obtained thanks to an EU funded cross-border cooperation programme between Finland and Russia, implemented at the Imatra Svetogorsk crossing point.

When fishing gets hooked up by sustainable tourism

Economic Development
Italy-Tunisia

How can u improve your fishing techniques and protect your family’s income if you are a traditional fisherman? And how can you link your work to the growing opportunities offered by an upward sector like tourism? These were the challenges faced by the ENPI cross-border project “Club Bleu Artisanal” implemented by Sicily (Italy) and Tunisia.

NOT FOR SALE: together against human trafficking

People-to-People
Romania-Republic of Moldova

Human trafficking is the third biggest international crime industry of the planet. It involves mostly girls from poor, vulnerable environments, young people without any perspective, kidnapped and shuffled on the market. The EU external border regions are particularly challenged by this phenomenon, and the ENPI CBC “Nor for sale” project – implemented across Romania and the Republic of Moldova – has been tackling the issue.

A chance to forgive and to make up: youth mediation

People-to-People
Karelia

Who hasn’t made a mistake in their life? Growing up is a journey often marked with tough decisions on education, hobbies, friends, social environment etc. It is easy to make a few wrong choices and get into some disputes along the way. Left unresolved, these choices and disputes can get out of control and have much harder consequences for the young people involved. What can be done to limit this potential damage?

Better together: facing adversity in life

People-to-People
Romania-Republic of Moldova

31 years after the Chernobyl disaster, the fall out of the accident is still being felt across eastern Europe. Find out how CBC has been able to make a difference in the lives of some of those affected.

Business opportunities for Arctic agriculture

Economic Development
Kolarctic

Getting blind people out of their darkness

People-to-People
Romania-Ukraine

The Chernivtsi Regional Organisation of Ukrainian Association of Blind People has 1000 members, of which about 100 people have higher and specialised secondary education, and 15 people are students. Suceava County, Romania, is home to around 2000 blind people and in Chisinau, Republic of Moldova, another 1100 blind people are living.

Building Up a Library for Families

People-to-People
Lithuania-Russia

The overall objective of the project was to improve family education as well as the information and cultural environment, and contribute to cross border social and economic development. One of the elements of the project was the renovation of the premises of two libraries – one in Marijampole (Lithuania) and one in Chernyakhovsk (Kaliningrad region, Russia). In both libraries functional spaces were created, such as a media library, a games corner, technology and meeting areas, and a photography club.

Museums across frontiers

People-to-People
Poland-Russia

In the course of implementing the project in the Museum of Archaeology and History in Elblag (Poland), the historic East Building on the castle grounds and the courtyard were renovated. The Russian museum „Friedland Gate” in Kaliningrad carried out the most urgent renovation works and commissioned an expert assessment of the adjacent stronghold, which will form the basis for further modernisation of the grounds and renovation of the historic buildings.

Even medical care has no borders

People-to-People
Romania-Republic of Moldova

Proper equipment, trained personnel and fast response in case of emergency situations is the best way to ensure safety and security for the people in any region of Europe including on its external borders with Ukraine and Republic of Moldova.

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