Norway allocates 4.7 million euro to Cyprus

A delegation of the Norwegian EEA Financial Mechanism is on the island to monitor the spending of Norwegian funds given to Cyprus as part of the European Economic Area Agreement.
Α meeting on this issue was held at the Planning Bureau between the Norwegian delegation and a Cypriot delegation headed by its Director-General Andreas Moleskis. It was decided that a total of 4.7 million euro will be allocated to Cyprus.
Ambassador Ingrid Schulerud, of the EEA Grants, told CNA that “I come from the Donors, and every year we have a meeting with the Planning Bureau on the spending of the Norwegian funds in Cyprus”.
The purpose of the programme, she said, “is broadly to support social and economic development in Cyprus. More specifically we have centred on cultural heritage, the environment and NGOs”.
After her meetings at the Foreign Ministry and with the Mayor of Nicosia, she will also cross to the Turkish occupied northern areas of Cyprus to meet members of the Turkish Cypriot community. One of the issues they have been discussing is how to promote contact within the youth organisations and to see “if we can create places for people to meet”.
According to Moleskis, the funds will be used for research and technology, to restore an old elementary school and turn it into a regional educational centre, to turn a house in the Green Line area into a meeting point for all the communities on the island and to fund the improvement of the Paphos Forest.
All these, he added, are part of the wider regional development programme and plans of the structural funds.