Interreg IIIA Southern Finland – Estonia programme has ended

Under the European Union programme era 2000–2006 implemented INTERREG IIIA Southern Finland – Estonia programme has ended. Via the programme 161 projects have been financed, of which 55 have been co-financed joint projects between Finland and Estonia. They have been implemented after Estonia joining the EU.

The results of the joint projects can be read from the project compendium Bridging Borders through interaction, innovation, and an integrated environment (pdf 1,2 Mb). In addition to describing the project results, it also highlights some good examples of successful projects.

The Ex Post Evaluation of the programme can be read from the page Evaluation Reports.
INTERREG IIIA Southern Finland – Estonia web sites will be maintained till the year 2013 (without updates).

INTERREG IIIA Programme Supported Co-operation between Southern Finland and Estonia

The overall aim of the INTERREG Community Initiative is that national borders should not be a barrier to the balanced development and integration of the European territory. Co-operation is co-financed from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

INTERREG IIIA programmes supported cross-border cooperation between neighbouring regions. There were total six such EU programmes in Finland together with Estonia, Sweden, Norway and Russia. Estonia had two cross-border co-operation programmes: the one together with Southern Finland, and the other with Latvia and Russia.

In 2000-2003 the co-operation was carried out in Southern Finland Coastal Zone INTERREG IIIA programme which was pursued to implement jointly with the Estonia Phare CBC programme. While Estonia joined the EU in 2004, the INTERREG programme evolved to INTERREG IIIA Southern Finland and Estonia programme. The programme priorities and measures did not change, because they were already in the beginning sketched in Finnish-Estonian co-operation for joint INTERREG activities.