Pursuant to EC Regulation 1260/99 (article 46), the Managing Authority bears the responsibility for making public the Operational Programme “Road Axes, Ports and Urban Development”, so as for eventually interested parties, professional organizations, economic and social partners, organizations promoting equality of men and women, non-governmental organizations and the general public to receive information on the Programme’s Measures and Actions and the role that the European Community plays in their implementation.
With regard to publicity and information on Structural Funds interventions and thus, on this Programme, EC Regulations 1260 / 1999 and 1159 / 2000 are applicable, as well as the contents of Chapter 5 of the Operational Programme “Road Axes, Ports and Urban Development” on publicity and information.
In particular, EC Regulation 1159 / 2000 sets the measures that need to be adopted regarding information and publicity on this Operational Programme. The publicity and information activity basically aims at increasing awareness and transparency in terms of Structural Funds interventions.
This Chapter in the Complementary Programming Document comprises in detail the proposed measures concerning the publicity of the Programme, in the form of an action plan. This action plan includes all necessary steps for publicity, described and associated to the goals they aim to achieve.
The publicity and information action plan refers to publicity actions that should be implemented not only in the context of Measure 9.2 “Technical Assistance of the Programme” but also in the general framework of all the other Measures of the Programme. All the publicity actions shall take place under the coordination and the supervision of the Managing Authority of the OP-RAPUD.
This Chapter of the Complementary Programming Document also mentions some indications on the budget of publicity activities and of the administrative organization needed in order for them to be put into practice. Last but not least, the assessment criteria on actions’ publicity and information are also set in this Chapter.
The publicity and information action plan is composed by two broader fields of action. Each one of these fields of action corresponds to one of the two different levels of information and publicity which are described immediately afterwards.
- The actions focused on informing potential beneficiaries are included in the first level. These beneficiaries are the potentially involved parties, interested in implementing the actions of the Programme. The publicity actions towards this direction must immediately be put into place, addressing all potential beneficiaries. This particular Operational Programme is different since most final beneficiaries, in other words the Implementing Authorities/Bodies, have previously been determined and created in order to implement big projects in the field of transports infrastructure. Besides the final beneficiaries, the actions included in the Operational Programme also concern directly or indirectly professional organizations, economic partners, organizations promoting equality between women and men as well as many non-governmental organizations active in different fields. For instance, it is expected that big construction companies (both Greek and European) will show their interest in the OP and will eventually be called upon to undertake the projects needing private attendance. Environmental organizations constitute another example of interested parties, since they are expected to express and support their eventual disagreement on the environmental impact of the projects included in the Programme. The different points of view will contribute to the adoption of best solutions on environmental issues deriving form the consultation procedure, and will also help to choose from the best alternative suggestions for reducing the environmental impact, as the latter will be laid down and examined in the respective Environmental Impact Assessment Studies for the projects in question. All the above mentioned involved parties are called upon to contribute in their own way to the best possible implementation of the Programme. Nevertheless, their timely and sufficient information is of paramount importance, in order for them to be able to participate in all planning and implementing procedures. Therefore, information and publicity actions in this case must take place before final decisions are made on the inclusion of new actions in each Measure, with the aim of making room for the above mentioned parties to become involved and to speed up the implementation process.
- The actions concerning the citizens’ information on the OP are included in the second level. These actions address the entire population so as to provide thorough information on the projects implemented through the Operational Programme, their impact in the citizen’s everyday life and the role held by the European Union and the Greek State in this process. This level also includes the task of providing data and support to the Managing Authority of the III CSF on the publicity actions that will be put into place in the framework of the III CSF.
In the following pages, you can find the detailed action plan on publicity and information, fully describing the actions to be implemented in these two levels. |
OP-RAPUD