The stakeholders of the InnovaSPA project, who are taking part in the preparation of the Action Plan had their 3rd meeting, as because of the COVID-19, project partners had to delay the study visits planned for Semester 4.
The project manager informed the stakeholders about the requests of the Joint Secretary connecting to the preparation of the Action Plan. As the deadlines are not really in line with the activities of the project, one objective of the meeting was to find a solution.
One of the main issues is that partners have to prepare the draft confirmed by the Managing Authority at latest by December 2020 – but the trips were delayed to end of October and end of November and because of the COVID-19 pandemic there is a strong possibility that the Latvian trip can be implemented only in January 2021 (if the situation will let us do so). This way we can be in line with the rules of the Interreg Europe Programme only with the already implemented study trips.
On the other hand, the affected Programming Period was in question at the meeting. As of today the final version of the Regional Action Plan should be ready by Feb 2021, and for that time the preparation of the Economic Development and Innovation Operational Program (GINOP) 2021- 2027 hopefully be ready, the Managing Authority suggests to plan for that period.
Anyway the hard work of the stakeholders should be based on the study visits, so we all keep our fingers crossed that the next visits can be implemented in the situation where rules are changing from day to day.
