Thanks to all of you who participated in the consultation on the draft ‘Blue Book’. We are grateful that so many took their time to respond – a total number of 1 447. The responses are currently being analysed and will be taken into account when the donor countries finalise the 'Blue Book' containing the priority sectors and programme areas.
The draft ‘Blue Book’ describes the agreed priority sectors and programme areas eligible for funding under the EEA and Norway Grants 2014-2021. Its content reflects the joint experience built up between donor and beneficiary countries in the previous funding period 2009-2014.
Responses were received from all the three donor countries – Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway – as well as from all the beneficiary countries of the EEA and Norway Grants 2014-2021.
Many respondents from civil society
Feedback was received on all 23 programme areas. One of the programme areas that received most comments was programme area 15 Civil Society.
In Poland, a group of NGOs translated programme area 15 Civil Society as well as the questions in the public consultation survey into Polish and circulated them in order for Polish NGOs to give their input to that part of the draft ‘Blue Book’. In Romania, the NGO Fund Operator arranged a similar process, which gathered comments from 290 respondents into the survey.
Input from beneficiary country stakeholders
In parallel to the public consultation, the National Focal Points (NFPs) in the beneficiary countries were provided with the opportunity to comment on the draft ‘Blue Book’ via email. Many of the NFPs gathered input from national stakeholders and aggregated this into their response.
Next steps
A report on the consultation will be made available on our webpage www.eeagrants.org/BlueBook following the finalisation of the ‘Blue Book’ in early autumn.
Keep an eye on the website for updates on the EEA and Norway Grants 2014-2021.