On 30 January 2018, in Kyustendil, the Fifth Joint Monitoring Committee meeting under Interreg-IPA Cross-border Cooperation Bulgaria - the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia Programme was held. The meeting was chaired by Denitsa Nikolova, Deputy Minister of the Regional Development and Public Works of the Republic of Bulgaria.

The JMC members reviewed and approved the following main documents:

1. Application package for the Second Call for Proposals, including Guidelines for Applicants and criteria for selection of operations;
2. Assessment rules for the Second Call for Proposals.

During the meeting, the progress in the implementation of Interreg-IPA CBC Bulgaria – the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia Programme 2014-2020 was presented, as well as the progress in the activities for closure of IPA Cross-border Programme 2007-2013.

The Joint Monitoring Committee decided that the Second Call for Project Proposals to be published on 9 February 2018 for collecting the projects in three Priority Axes of the Programme: Priority Axis 1 – Environment , Priority Axis 2 – Tourism and Priority Axis 3 – Competitiveness with total budget of EUR 6 917 631.

For the first time the projects will be submitted only electronically.