Slovenia and Norway Sign EEA Memorandum Worth EUR 12.5m
Slovenia and Norway have signed a financial memorandum under the European Economic Area (EEA) agreement, which gives Slovenia EUR 12.474m in the 2004-2009 period for environmental protection, sustainable development, cultural heritage, human resources, health and other projects.
The memorandum was signed in Ljubljana on Wednesday by head of the Government Office for European Affairs (SVEZ) Marcel Koprol and assistant secretary general of the Norwegian Foreign Ministry Per Ludvig Magnus.
The projects eligible for the funds will have to be co-funded to the tune of 10-40 percent by Slovenia. The co-funding will show Slovenia's commitment to the implementation of the projects, Koprol said.
According to Koprol, the projects co-funded through this mechanism could make a significant contribution to Slovenia's development and improve cooperation between Norwegian and Slovenian institutions.
This is the first memorandum that Slovenia signed with an EEA member (the other two include Liechtenstein and Iceland). By becoming an EEA member when it joined the EU on 1 May last year, Slovenia became eligible for funds provided by the EEA and the Norwegian financial mechanism.
Magnus announced that the EEA financial memorandum would be signed in Brussels shortly. He said the mechanism will contribute to bilateral economic relations.
The whole EEA financial package (the Norwegian and EEA instrument) for all ten newcomers is worth EUR 1.17bn between 2004 and 2009, with Poland receiving 47 percent of the money.
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