EEA and Norway Grants for Environmental Protection and Health

Three new programs that will attract EEA and Norway Grants in Romania were signed on January 16 2014 by the Minister for European Funds. The three programs are: "Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services", "Reduction of Dangerous Substances" and "Public Health Initiatives" with a value of over 33 million euro.

Through "Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services" are allocated to Romania non reimbursable funds of 15 million euro. The funding will be used to implement projects dedicated to the overall objective of halting biodiversity loss in Romania.

Meanwhile, the "Reduction of Dangerous Substances" will receive grants of 10 million euro in order to finance projects aimed at preventing the adverse effects of chemical substances and danderous waste on the environment. These two programs will be implemented by the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, which will launch in the near future requests for applications dedicated to non-governmental organizations, public institutions.

The "Public Health Initiatives" program, managed by the Ministry of Health, has an initial allocation of over 8 million euro, to be increased in the next period with about 13 million euro. This program, dedicated to the overall objective of improving public health and reducing health inequalities, will support projects in areas such as prevention and control of communicable diseases, improved tuberculosis control, public health mediators, prevention of non-communicable diseases related to lifestyle. The program will address the specific needs of minority groups, with a special focus on the situation of Roma.

Through the European Economic Area Agreement (EEA), three EFTA countries - Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein are part of the European internal market and contribute to the social and economic development, through the EEA and Norway Grants, 15 member states of the East, Center and South of the European Union benefiting from it. Norway is the main donor state, contributing with 97% of the total funding.

The major objectives of the EEA and Norway grants are: reducing economic and social disparities in the European Economic Area, strengthening of bilateral relations between donor and recipient states. For the 2004-2009 funding period,

Romania has allocated grants of about 100 million euro, for projects in key areas such as environmental protection, sustainable production, health and child care, cultural preservation and development of civil society. A total of 65 specific projects and over 100 projects developed by NGOs were implemented, the absorption rate being around 85%.

For more details on EEA and Norway Grants, please visit:  www.norvegia.ro,  www.eeagrants.org,  www.eeagrants.ro or www.norwaygrants.ro .