In 11th and 12th January, BID-REX project attended to the Spanish on-line training sessions regarding the Prioritised Action Framework 2021-2027 to finance Natura 2000 during the next European Funds operational programme.

The objective of the sessions, organized by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge of the Government of Spain, was to highlight the opportunities offered by the various European funds to implement the PAF for nature conservation within the framework of the Habitats and Birds Directives.

In this context, Mr Pau Sainz de la Maza, responsible of the Interreg Europe BID-REX project by the Department of Territory and Sustainability of the Government of Catalonia was invited to hold a conference to explain his experience on the project. During that, Mr Sainz de la Maza highlighted that Interreg Europe projects, although they involve an additional work effort, are a fantastic opportunity to learn about other realities, other solutions regarding similar problems. In this way, as has happened in the BID-REX project, many good practices from other European regions can be easily transferred to our region. Also, beyond specific learning, it is a good opportunity to create networks and contacts between regions and institutions.

Mr Pau Sainz de la Maza during his conference

The BID-REX project provided a wide knowledge of European Funds to the designers of the Catalan PAF for 2021- 2027 and the good practices from other project partners were a source of inspiration for a new projects and actions to be developed during the next European funds' operational programme.

In this context, it's also remarkable that the work done during BID-REX project is letting Catalonia to have better biodiversity information accessible for decision makers, and this helped to better prioritize actions for the new PAF.

Further information of the training sessions can be found here.