Interreg 4 A Deutschland-Nederland

Depending on how far your project idea is developed, you can undertake several steps. However, the first step should always be to contact the programme management in your region. Here you can find which regional programmemanagement to contact. The programme management will designate a project coordinator, depending on the subject, who can guide and advice.  

For a project you will need project partners on both sides of the border and co-financing. Between the project partners and the lead partner a cooperation agreement must be signed. You will also need access to the monitoring system InterDB-SQL: an online system for the application and management of projects. Your project coordinator at the regional programme management can give you access to the monitoring system. You must fill in the data in the monitoring system, print and sign the form. Your application is only official after it is received by your project coordinator. There usually is much consultation between you and your project coordinator before the final submission. Your project coordinator can provide you with more information .  

There are no deadlines for the submission of project applications: this can be done all year long. It is true, however, that during the progress of the programme more financial means are already being reserved. Especially priority three ‘society and integration’ has only little money left available. It is therefore important not to wait too long with the submission of your project application.  

Your application will be examined on completeness and consistency of the requested data: is the application complete and signed, are the attachments added. If this is the case your application will be considered ‘admissible´ by the programme management. Then the regional programme management examines whether the application meets the criteria of the Operational Programme, the Subsidy Principles, the General additional conditions and the EU regulations. On the basis of this examination the regional programme management recommends the application to the Steering Committee. The programme partners will decide on the application in this Steering Committee or, with regard to majeure projects, in the Monitoring Committee. The approval or rejection is a.o. depending on the remaining means in the concerning priority and how well the project fits in the policy of the programme partners.  

The most important feature your project has to possess is the cross-border character. This must be shown in the shared costs, personal or other means, but also in the effects of the project that must have its influence on both sides of the border. This means that at least one project partner from the other side must be involved in the project.
The eligible costs must be at least € 100.000,- (see also the FAQs on financing) and the financing must be secured.
It is also of importance that your project is sustainable and offers equal opportunities to men and women. The project must also be in accordance with national, regional and local policies and the relevant EU Regulations.
For the exact project criteria you can download the documents ‘Subsidy Principles’, ‘Algemene aanvullende bepalingen’/’Algemeine Nebenbestimmungen’ (only in Dutch and German) and the Operationeel Programma/Operationelles Programm (also only in Dutch and German).  

Your project coordinator will inform you on the developments of your project application in the decision making process. The usual time period after official submission and admissibility of your project application is about 6-8 months. Often it happens that adjustments or additions have to be made to make the application complete.
For majeure projects the manager majeure projects is the contact person, who can inform you about the progress. Normally the time period of majeure projects in the decision making process will be longer.  

Your project application must run through several stages. In the regional Steering Committee the project partners will decide on your project application. These Steering Committees meet three times a year. You will be notified by letter on the decision of the steering committee. In case all requirements are met, you will receive a letter of approval (Bewilligung) of the Contracting Authority.
The same can be said of majeure projects, only that not the steering committee but the Monitoring Committee decides on the project application. The Monitoring Committee also meets three times per year.
When a project is rejected the application procedure stops and you will be informed accordingly.  

Officially you can start after the official submission of the application form and the receipt of the form by the regional programme management. Though this is at your own risk: when the project application is not approved the costs are for your account. For advice you may contact your project coordinator. In no case you can start before the official date of receipt of the project application. Costs before this date are not eligible and cannot be declared.  

National co-financers are bound to annual budgets and must state this in advance. For these budgets they take the division of costs over the years, which are indicated in the project applications, as a basis. With the estimation of the annual budgets in your project application you must realize that these costs are in fact the means that you plan to claim per year. You must take into account that these payment claims take about 1,5 months to be processed. You can therefore submit payment claims until November 15 that will count for the same year (see also question ‘I wish to submit a payment request for my project. What should I do?’ under project implementation). When a project year budget as stated in the project application is not met, the outstanding means of that year may be lost. To maintain these means you can always submit an application for a project change, but it cannot be guaranteed that the lost means can still be made available to the project.  

In case you have questions regarding the installation or use of the monitoring system InterDB-SQL you can review the manual for lead partners. You can find this manual under downloads on this website (only in German and Dutch). It is possible that you encounter difficulties when installing the monitoring system if your internet security is very strict. In the manual you can find indications on this, but you can also contact the IT department of your organisation.
In case the manual or your IT department cannot solve the problem you can contact your project coordinator. As a last resource he or she can forward your question to the developer of the monitoring system. In the monitoring system itself there are information fields with indications on the filling in of the different screens.
To gain access to the monitoring system you can contact your project coordinator. You will receive two emails with the access codes and instructions on the installation. It is recommended to have regular consultations with your project coordinator during the preparation of your project application and to discuss the application before official submission.  

A Lead partner is the ‘applicant’ who has the final responsibility for the project. The Lead partner maintains contact with the programme management and hands in the official documents.
The project partners are the other participants with the project. They support the project and should come from both sides of the border. This support can come in various forms (financial means, personal, knowledge, etc.). The different tasks and responsibilities should be discussed in advance. A cooperation agreement between the partners must be signed.  

In case you do not wish to be a Lead partner / apply a project, you may well participate in a project as a project partner. Project partners support and carry a part of the project. With the Lead partner it is arranged and settled in an agreement which tasks each project partner carries out. Project partners can support with personnel, knowledge, material or financial means.

Project partners are sought and contacted before a project is officially submitted and started, because at the moment of decision on the approval/rejection it must be clear which project partners participate. It is therefore important to have contact with the Lead partner in time, who is responsible for seeking the project partners. You can contact the programme management in your region to find out more about the possibilities in your field of interest.  

Finding and contacting of project partners is the responsibility of the Lead partner. The regional programme management can only offer support. Your project must at least have one other partner on the other side of the border. Means and personal should be made available on both sides of the border. Without these conditions a project cannot be approved.

A good starting point for looking for qualified project partners is by using the contacts and networks within your own organization. Branch organizations or occupational groups and research organizations can provide leads. Please take into account that on the other side of the border a different kind of organization structure may be exercised in your branch, so that it is not always possible to find partners of same legal position or size.

Please remind that the signed cooperation agreement (only in German and Dutch: 'Muster für eine Kooperationsvereinbarung' or 'Concept samenwerkingsovereenkomst') is a required element of the submission of the project application.  

The programme area of the INTERREG IV A programme Deutschland-Nederland consists of areas directly linked to the border (100% areas) and areas that are neighbouring these border areas (20% areas). In the programme it is recorded that only 20% of the means can be spend in the neighbouring areas. This 20% area rule is only applicable as an average for the programme and does not count for individual projects. Project partners from the 20% areas can easily join your project, but you must make sure to indicate clearly in your project application that the project activities also affect the border regions and that there are no suitable project partners in the border regions. With the examination of your project application this motivation will be taken into account and will effect the recommendation. Your project coordinator can inform you more on this issue.  

The Lead partner is responsible for balancing and clearing the project budget. EU-means contribute to a maximum of 50% of the total of eligible costs. This percentage is depending on the nature of the project. The remaining part of the budget must be covered by you and your project partners and by public or private co-financing. For this purpose you can contact national, regional and local governments and other parties on both sides of the border, such as provinces and the Dutch and Northrhine-Westphalian ministries of Economic Affairs. The cofinancing of the lead partner and the partners should be at least 20%. Without a balanced and clear budget the project will not be approved.
Your project coordinator at the regional programme management may offer possible guidance with the appeal for cofinance.  

One of the conditions with the submission of a project application is the minimum eligible costs of € 100.000,-. For projects with a smaller budget you can apply for subsidy of the INTERREG programme Deutschland-Nederland within so called frame projects that exist in each priority. The People-II-People project in priority 3 is an example of a frame project. The projects within the People-II-People project stimulate the cooperation between German and Dutch citizens. For these projects a maximum of 50% EU cofancing can be requested with a maximum of € 25.000,-.  

Compared to a regional project a majeure project as a larger serving area and a national interest and normally covers a large part or the entire programme area. The term and financial size are usually also larger. Partners should come from all over the programme area. The national and business involvement should be big. In the programme budget about 35% of the means is reserved for majeure projects. The largest part of this will be spend on projects increasing the economic development and innovation.  

In case you suspect the entire programme area can benefit from your project (and there may be a need/basis alongside the entire border region), you can contact the manager majeure projects to discuss your project idea. It is important that larger players on both sides of the border are involved and that the project connects to national policies. Ideally a majeure project would address an obstacle or appeal chances that are current alongside the border.  

During the term of your project the lead partner must at least once every 6 months submit a payment request for the project. It is important to note that the project partners themselves must finance the costs in advance. These can only be declared after actual payment of the costs.
The submission of the payment request runs through the monitoring system InterDB-SQL. All projects of the programme are in this monitoring system. In case you have not yet received access to the system you can contact your project coordinator. You follow the steps in the monitoring system and enter the bills (see also the manual for lead partners under downloads; only in German and Dutch, ‘Handbuch zum Monitoringsystem Mittelabrufe’ or ‘Handboek monitoringsysteem uitbetalingsaanvragen’). After examination and approval of the authorised audit agency you can submit the payment request. In order to do this you can print the form from the monitoring system, sign it and send it to your project coordinator. It is not necessary to indicate which financial source you wish to use, because the means of the different co-financers are mostly united into one project account.
It is important to take to processing time of the payment request of about 1,5 month into account. This means that if you wish to draw on the annual budget of the present year you must submit the payment requests before November 15. If you wait until after this date it is possible that the payment claim will be paid in the next year and also counts for the annual budget of the next year. See also the question ‘what is meant with the division of costs over the years?’ under application process.  

No, per project only one ‘authorised audit agency’ is allowed. The accountant with the authorisation examines also the declarations of the other partners. Payment requests must be handed in jointly and not per partner.  

Twice a year the lead partner must submit a progress report on the development of the project. The report periods are

• January 1 – June 30
• July 1 – December 31

To fill in these reports the lead partner has to use the monitoringsystem InterDB-SQL. The progres reports have to be send digitally and hardcopy (and signed) within 12 weeks after the concerned report period (September 22 and March 25) to the responspible project coordinator at one of the regional programmemanagements.
In this report the achieved results for the indicators and the financial situation are compared with the in the application recorded targets.  

The Communication Guideline is obligatory, in which the conditions for the presentation of your project to the public are set. The Communication Guideline is part of the approval. For a comprehensive description of the required PR activities you can download the Communication Guideline here (only available in German and Dutch: 'Leitfaden Kommunikation' or 'Leidraad communicatie').
With publications the programme logo and subsidy logo must be printed as well. Depending on the form of the publication also the other subsidy granting organizations should be added. In case there is a website available for the project a link must be placed on this website to the programme website deutschland-nederland.eu. Also two press releases must be produced (one at the start and one at the closure of the project). The website link and press releases are set as obliged indicators in the project application.  

On this website you can download the logo’s of the programme, the EU and all programme partners in jpg en eps format, and black/white and colour version under logo databank (not on the English version of the website). To receive access to the logo databank you must first register. After this you will receive a confirmation per email and can you log into the logo databank.  

For publicity meetings you can make a reservation with your regional programme management to borrow a flag (EU, NL, DE) for a short time. You should collect and return the flag yourself to the regional programme management.
The making of other PR materials, such as brochures, posters or give-aways, is your responsibility. Please pay attention to the rules of procurement and the communication guidelines. If you have any questions concerning PR materials, the regional programmmanagements will try to help you.  

On this website you can find information on several approved projects in the programme area in the project database. For more information on a specific project you can contact the contact person mentioned. Projects always contain an information and publicity part, so that you should easily be able get more information.  

On this website you will find general information on the programme INTERREG IV A Deutschland-Nederland. In case you would like to receive more information, please contact the responsible programme management. For other questions you can use the contact form.  

On the websites of the regional programme managements lists may be found of published documents and publications. The INTERREG IIIA brochure ‘Border regions creating Europe’, the flyer ‘Bouw aan Europa’/’Gestalten Sie Europa’ and the brochure 'De weg naar een succesvolle INTERREG aanvraag' / 'Der Weg zu einem erfolgreichen INTERREG-Antrag' can be ordered under publications on the German or Dutch version of this website. Additionally four times per year a digital magazine is published (only in German and Dutch), for which you can register here.
For other general questions you can always contact the Joint Secretariat with the contact form.
For general information on the regional and cohesion policy of the European Union you may visit the website of the Directorate General Regional Policy.