On 21-22 November 2018, 100 delegates from 18 OCTs, the EU institutions and other organisations met in Brussels for a 2-day workshop organised by the Association of the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTA) to build upon the lessons from a recent assessment of participant engagement in EU Funding.
The OCTs are eligible ‘by principle’ for participation in and funding from EU programmes reflecting their status as members of the European family. Unfortunately, their success in accessing EU funds other than the EDF remains very limited.
The Hon. Colin Owen, Financial Secretary, Ms Janice Panton, UK Representative, Ms Veta Wade, Owner and operator of Fish and Fins and Aqua Montserrat and Mr Lyston Skerritt, Coordinator of the Youth and Sports Development Programme, represented Montserrat.
According to a recent report from the Association of the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTA), 66 organisations based in the OCTs have been involved in 126 EU-funded projects, as coordinator or partner, since 2014 and received an estimated support of EUR 6.3 million.
Although the OCTs are not part of the EU territory, their participation in programmes such as Erasmus+ and Horizon 2020, and their eligibility to all programmes, reflect the fact that they are part of the “European Family”.
Representatives of local NGOs, research centres, universities, business support organisations shared their experience in accessing EU programmes and actively discussed strategies and solutions for enhancing their participation in these programmes.
Organisations interested in OCTs or looking for partners based in the OCTs are invited to review the list of the 66 current OCT-based beneficiaries in OCTA’s report.
The participating delegation from Montserrat will be working to increase application and engagement through available programmes in the areas of Youth programming, Youth mobility, Young Entrepreneurship support and Oceanic Support Programs.
For more information about the planned projects, contact the Youth and Sports Development office at (664) 495-2601.
