As of right now, I have just finished my first three months volunteering in the Interreg Euro-MED Joint Secretariat in Marseille. These three months of learning and contributing in the best way possible to the Euro-MED programme have been truly one-of-a-kind experiences for me. In this blog article, I would like to share what Interreg Euro-MED does and what I have learned in these 3 months.
First things first, let me start by introducing myself. I am Fahrettin from Turkey. I have two Bachelor’s. One in International Relations and one in English Language Teaching.
Especially the first one is the reason why and how I started learning about what Interreg is and what it does.
After studying International Relations and getting to know the European Union, I learned that interregional cooperation is at the very core of what makes Europe, Europe. Interregional cooperation between municipalities, regions, and countries turns the ideas in our minds into a reality that impacts people in everyday life. That was why I decided to volunteer in this programme in the first place.
In the Interreg Euro-MED programme, we have 4 different areas of missions:
- Green Living Areas
- Natural Heritage
- Innovative Sustainable Economy
- Sustainable Tourism
As Joint Secretariat, our main tasks are to coordinate and provide the related information, assess project applications, and support partners in these 4 different missions.
To provide and coordinate the related information, like the application dates of the calls and reach out to programme documents, we have a great Communications team. And that’s where I volunteer and try to contribute as much as I can. Using our social media channels and website, we create effective social media posts, write news articles to announce details, help out the projects in technical ways, and many many more.
I believe these three months have been a great learning experience for me and I am glad to have gotten this opportunity to see how interregional cooperation is happening first-hand. If you are also interested in what my programme does, here are some links for you to read further:
https://interreg-euro-med.eu/en/
https://interreg-euro-med.eu/en/what-we-do/
– Fahrettin, IVY Reporter at the Joint Secretariat Interreg Euro-MED
