The Matthias Church in Budapest is being repaired with the help of the EEA and Norway Grants. Photo: Directorate for Cultural Heritage © Riksantikvaren

In this new period Norway will contribute almost three billion kroner (347 million euro) annually to reducing social and economic disparities in Europe, and to assure bilateral cooperation. This means that the EEA and Norway Grants will increase by 22% in comparison with the previous period (2004-2009).

Funding from Norway will be targeted at key areas such as the environment, climate, cultural heritage, health and research. The funding will be channelled through various sector programmes now under preparation.

One objective of the 2009-2014 EEA and Norway Grants is to strengthen the ties between the donor and beneficiary countries. This will provide good opportunities for Norwegian actors to go in as partners in the various sectors. The sectors to be given priority in each of the 15 beneficiary states will not be identified until after the bilateral negotiations are concluded. These negotiations are now ongoing, and will be concecutively concluded. The signed agreements (MoU's) will be published here. It is expected that the announcement of the grants and programmes will start at the earliest in late 2011, in some few countries.

Priority areas for the EEA and Norway Grants 2009-2014 in accordance with the new agreement are:

• Environmental protection and management
• Climate change measures
• Carbon capture and storage (CCS)
• Green industry innovation
• Research and higher education
• Cultural heritage
• Civil society
• Fund for the promotion of decent work – tripartite dialogue
• Justice and home affairs
• Human resource development

For more information about the new period of the EEA and Norway Grants, including the financial distribution among the different countries, see the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ European website Europaportalen and Frequently Asked Questions.