Around 20m euros will go into projects on innovation, the circular economy, the environment and green city spaces under the Euro-Mediterranean (Euro-MED) programme 2021-2027, the press office of the regional development ministry says.

The eighth call for project proposals under the programme opens on 1 October. The final application guidelines, the programme manual and details on how to register for the information session are now on the programme's official website.

Approved projects must be finished within 24 months, and the top budget for each one is 2m euros, the ministry says. Every project must bring together at least five organisations from five different countries covered by the programme. Applications go through the Jems online system by 2pm on 13 November. After that, lead partners must present their projects in person to an evaluation panel.

As the programme's national authority, the regional development ministry pays 15% of the national co-financing for Bulgarian partners in approved projects. The programme itself covers 80% of each partner's budget, and the beneficiary must put up the remaining 5% itself.

The tool lets applicants pitch their ideas, look for partners and get in direct touch with organisations from other countries in the programme.

The Euro-Mediterranean (Euro-MED) programme 2021-2027 is an EU cross-border cooperation scheme that follows on from the Interreg Euro-Mediterranean transnational cooperation programme 2021-2027 (Interreg MED), according to the ministry's website. For the current programme period its reach has grown to include two new countries — Bulgaria and North Macedonia. Three more Spanish regions have also joined: Castilla-La Mancha, the Community of Madrid and Extremadura. The programme's total budget for 2021-2027 comes to close to 294m euros.