Croatia takes the lead of the EU Semester

From 1st January to 30th June 2020, Croatia is taking over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union for its first time.

Croatia is holding the EU Semester with the slogans “A strong Europe in a world of challenges”. The priorities are linked to four main highlights: A Europe that develops, a Europe that connects, a Europe that protects, an influential Europe.

The EU Semester hold by Croatia represents a big opportunity for the Programme to be better known and to increase its visibility at EU level. As Partner State, Croatia is well represented in terms of beneficiaries and stakeholders interested in the Programme’s activities. The country is involved with 82 beneficiaries in 52 out of 56 Projects. Five projects are led by Croatian beneficiaries and are focusing on Innovation and Transport.

In particular, BLUE_BOOST whose lead partner is the Croatian Chamber of Economy of the Zadar County Chamber, has the ambitious goal of unlocking the potential of maritime clusters along the shores of the Adriatic and Ionian region. The project has launched a transnational innovation voucher scheme aimed at granting 35 small-scale projects targeting the main sectors of the Blue growth. Moreover, innovation in the tourism sector is the core mission of FOST INNO, coordinated by the Faculty of Tourism of the University of Rijeka, which aims at setting up a networking structure and increased knowledge transfer between business, users, academia and institutional stakeholders of the tourism sector. On the other hand, the project led by the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture at the University of Zagreb, SEADRION, responds to the need of improving the use of the seawater heat pump technology. The project will set up 3 renewable energy facilities in the public buildings located in Greece as well as Western and South part of Croatia.

Under Priority Axis 2, which aims at strengthening sustainable and intermodal connections, the airport of Dubrovnik leads INTER PASS, whose overall objective is to enhance the intermodal connections between ports and airports in the Adriatic–Ionian Region during the peak season by strengthening the processing of passengers, mainly cruise tourists and travellers reaching tourists destinations. Within the same area, MULTIAPPRO, led by the Intermodal Transport Cluster based in Rijeka, focuses on the improvement of intermodal and freight transport logistics, and the capacity to better measure the impact of new investments.

ADRION is organizing an event to promote the Programme under the Croatian Presidency, stay tuned to know more about the details!