An Analysis of Bilateral Project Consortia in the Case of Greece and Bulgaria

Abstract

Interreg IV is an EU initiative financed under the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) which aims to stimulate interregional cooperation in the EU between the years 2007–2013. In this empirical paper, we offer a first analytical view on the relations and the network developed through project partnerships within the European Territorial Cooperation Programme. Our aim is to discover and understand the collaborative status of cross border projects in the two countries with regard to their priorities and targets set in Programme Interreg IV: Greece–Bulgaria 2007–2013. In particular, we analyse the characteristics of 90 projects with 329 partners in order to examine data relevant to the project’s priority axis, the number of the partners involved, the type of the partners, etc. Our analysis provides insights on the regional and organizational strategies for the development of bilateral collaboration between the organizations of the two countries and for the successful development of future actions for the strengthening of cross border collaboration.