Rafting tour Day 2 – 14 July 2010

We have reached to the second day of an unconventional adventure to promote the programme with the international team of the programme management structure whilst rafting through the spirit of the programme, river Tisa from Sighetu Marmaţiei to Veľké Trakany touching ten significant communities. During the events we are usually publicizing the second Call launched on 24 June 2010 via emphasizing the success of winner projects within the first Call. The second day of the journey was different and more considering the results of it. The first grant contracts have been signed within the ENPI CBC world!

Day 1 in short….
We arrived to Slotvyno, the city famous for salt mining for hundreds of years, where the community welcomed us with a heart-touching traditional reception: bread, salt and folklore presentation by the youth. Mayor of Slotvyno handed over a present to transfer on boat to Mr. József KOPASZ, mayor of Veľké Trakany. The cross-border present still has to take more than 132 km on river to get to the addressee. We rafted further till Bushtyno and spent the night in Chust.

Chust, 14 July 2010, 9 a.m.

We were not just talking about the possibilities of the cross-border co-operation but we were also acting. We arrived to Chust with three grant contracts which mean more than 1,200,000 EUR sources of funding for development of hospitals, logistic parks and for biomass research.

General Directors of hospitals, doctors and nurses are working hard for the most important ones, the babies. In the joint project of Regional Children’s Hospital of Mukachevo (UA) and Felső-Szabolcsi Hospital of Kisvárda (HU) the fight for new-born babies will be enhanced by the improvement of the material and technical provision and increasing the level of qualification in diagnostics and nursing care issues of the staff of children’s hospitals.
Mr. László BRENZOVICS, representing Zakarpattya Oblast Council has signed the grant contract for the elaboration of documents for Cross-Border Industrial Park creation with the elements of logistics. The objective of the joint project is the improvement of business infrastructure (through a created integrated cross-border industrial park) for enhancing development and cross-border cooperation of Ukrainian and Hungarian SMEs. 
Producers and consumers of biomass are also cooperating in the cross-border region. The project has been granted more than 380,000 EUR with the aim to increase the level of activity of local actors in the field of biomass energy development in UA-SK border region. Partners will create pilot examples of biomass energy utilisation.

“Today is a historical day. The HU-SK-RO-UA ENPI CBC Programme has the right to have signed the first grant contracts. Those living in the border region and those involved in the programme management can be proud of the fact that the first fruit of the hard work ripens in Transcarpathia.”  - announced András SZILÁGYI dr., programme manager of the Hungarian National Development Agency.

Following his speech, András BARANYI dr., director of the Joint Technical Secretariat of the programme gave a symbolic present to the representatives of the granted projects. The logic play similar to a salt crystal symbolizes the complexity of searching for partner(s) and of the joint project implementation.

Afternoon we passed the water from Vinogradiv and arrived to the border crossing point between Vylok (UA) and Tiszabecs (HU) at 4 p.m. For the time being, it was an exceptional case only for us to have the right to row continuously on the river without any stop where it divides the two countries. The conditions of this procedure will be elaborated and built soon in the frame of a joint HU-UA project. It is not so far when travellers can cross the border on water – again a significant step with the help of ENPI funds.

Photo: Darabos