The Regional Office for Cross Border Cooperation Iași (BRCT Iași, Romania) and IDN will cooperate in the project “Action for Grass Roots Environmental Efforts Network – ActGREEN”.

The project is financed by the Norway Grants and will be implemented over a period of five months with BRCT Iași visiting IDN in Trondheim as the main activity. During this visit, the partners will meet up with relevant organizations and actors in Norway but also work together in finding future development projects for the cross-border region between Romania and Moldova.

The main objective of the project is to strengthen the cooperation between Romania and the Kingdom of Norway through common actions for civil society involvement in global environmental governance.

The secondary objectives of the project:

• To build a solid partnership with institutions and authorities in Norway for supporting knowledge transfer in environment and sustainable development sectors.
• Capacity building of BRCT Iași for providing professional assistance on environmental issues to the communities and stakeholders in the North-East Region / Eastern Counties of Romania.

Through the Norway Grants and EEA Grants, Norway contributes to reducing social and economic disparities and to strengthening bilateral relations with the beneficiary countries in Europe. Norway cooperates closely with the EU through the Agreement on the European Economic Area (EEA).

For the period 2009-14, Norway’s contribution is €1.7 billion. Grants are available for NGOs, research and academic institutions, and the public and private sectors in the 12 newest EU member states, Greece, Portugal and Spain. There is broad cooperation with Norwegian entities, and activities may be implemented until 2016.

Key areas of support are environmental protection and climate change, research and scholarships, civil society, health and children, gender equality, justice and cultural heritage.