The purpose of this consultation was to ensure that the draft priorities, indicators and horizontal principles have been developed in a way that potential project promoters can work with.

Preparations for the development of the successor programme, Northern Periphery and Arctic 2014-2020, have been well underway for approx. 1 year. National and regional representatives, as well as wider Regional Advisory Groups have been involved in the development of the Operational Programme. In addition, a preparatory project exploring the Arctic Dimension of the new programme has provided input, proposing the integration of the Arctic dimension in all priorities, horizontally. The whole process has been followed by Ex Ante evaluators to ensure due diligence.

The consultation gave a wider group of stakeholders a chance to review and comment on the text, to help the drafting team operationalise and fine-tune the sections developed so far. More specifically, the analysis of the programme area, the programme strategy, the draft priorities, indicators and horizontal principles, which form the basis for the types of projects that will be funded.

Next steps
Outcomes from the public consultation and the recent consultation event at the NPP Annual Conference 2013 will be taken into consideration, when reviewing the sections in question, before an agreement on these sections is reached by the Programme Planning Group meeting at the 31st October 2013. 

Developments in the programming process will be posted in the new web section about the New Programme 2014-2020.