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27.03.2025
EU financial opportunities for Ukrainian municipalities: A detailed overview
Ukrainian municipalities have access to numerous European Union funding programmes that promote cross-border cooperation, innovation, sustainable development, and social initiatives. In this article by Cities4Cities, we will look at the key programmes that may be useful for communities, their conditions, and application deadlines.
Ukraine already has access to the following EU programmes:
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Interreg programmes
Cross-border, transnational, and interregional cooperation
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Thematic EU Programmes
- Horizon Europe
- EURATOM
- Research and Training Programme
- Digital Europe
- FISCALIS CUSTOMS
- EU4Health
- Creative Europe
- LIFE
- Single Market Programme
- Connecting Europe Facility (CEF)
- Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM)
- Erasmus+
- Leader
- Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV)
Interreg Next
Romania-Ukraine
- Romanian counties: Suceava, Botoșani, Satu Mare, Maramureș, Tulcea
- Ukrainian oblasts: Zakarpattia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Odesa, Chernivtsi
Goal: Call for small projects for better governance and cooperation
Budget: 9,848,226
Expected call opening: March 2025
Hungary-Slovakia-Romania-Ukraine
- Slovak regions: Košice, Prešov
- Hungarian regions: Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg, Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén
- Romanian counties: Maramureș, Satu Mare, Suceava
- Ukrainian oblasts: Zakarpattia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi
Call for projects on cross-border cooperation and regional development in the following topics:
- Sustainable & green border regions
- Healthcare, tourism, culture
- Security
Budget: €27 million
The second call for projects is scheduled to open in the first half of 2025
Poland-Ukraine
This year, the programme is expected to offer calls for small projects through so-called operators, i.e. intermediaries between the programme and applicants. The Polish organisation Carpathian Euroregion has already been selected as one of these operators, and will soon announce calls under the “Cooperation” priority. The European Commission is also considering the application of the Ternopil Regional Military Administration, which is applying to become the operator of the small grants fund under the “Environment” priority.
The calls will be held throughout 2025. Importantly, the grants will be provided on a reimbursement basis, which means that the communities planning to apply must have the funds to implement projects that will be reimbursed.
Small project calls provide funding for projects up to €100,000.
- Polish voivodeships: Podlaskie, Masovian (Ostrołęka & Siedlce subregions only), Lublin, Podkarpackie
- Ukrainian oblasts: Volyn, Lviv, Zakarpattia, Rivne, Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk.
Black Sea Programme
Two project calls completed
Countries whose coastal areas participate in the programme
- Romania
- Bulgaria
- Greece
- Turkey
- Ukraine (the whole country during the war)
- Republic of Moldova
- Georgia
- Armenia
Danube Transnational Programme
14 countries are participating, including 9 EU member states:
- Austria
- 2 German regions of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria
- Czech Republic
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Croatia
- Hungary
- Romania
- Bulgaria
And 5 other countries:
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Montenegro
- Moldova
- Serbia
- Ukraine
Priorities:
- A more competitive and smart region (innovation, smart specialisation)
- Green transformation & carbon reduction (biodiversity, green tech, water purification, disaster resilience)
- A more social region (education, labour market access, culture, tourism, heritage protection)
- Better governance & cooperation
Support to Ukraine and Moldova border regions ERDFTA-2024-SUPPORTUMBR
- Entire Moldova
- Ukrainian oblasts: Chernivtsi, Khmelnytskyi, Vinnytsia, Odesa
- Potential oblasts where this is justified: Cherkasy, Kirovohrad, Mykolaiv
There are no terms and dates yet, as they have just announced a call for applications for the small projects programme operator.
Budget: €2 million
Grants for which communities can apply: Up to €100,000
Interreg Europe
Calls under this programme ended in 2024 and it is worth knowing and following the programme updates.
Features:
- 70-80% co-financing;
- Partners from 4 parts of Europe (West, East, North, South);
- Policy development projects;
- No capital expenditure funding
URBACT
The programme creates thematic networks of European cities that work on implementing certain policies or overcoming certain local development challenges that are common to the entire European Union.
Upcoming calls:
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Call for proposals for the establishment of Transfer Networks)
April-June 2025
Within the network, one city shares its successful practices with other cities, and they, in turn, adapt the solutions developed by their peers to their own needs.
A list of such networks is also available on the website.
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Action Planning Network
April-June 2026
This network is aimed at jointly developing an integrated development plan by cities to overcome a common challenge.
The network consists of 5 to 12 partners:
- Cities >50,000 population
- Urban agglomerations (often in the soft form of local government associations);
- Local development agencies.
The network members not only cooperate with each other, but also receive consultations from the programme experts on how to better mobilise local capacity to address challenges using the URBACT method.
As part of such a project, a city with the best practices shares its experience with a group of new cities. Best practices are adapted and implemented.
Three important components of the project:
- Civil society, non-governmental organisations, academia and the private sector located in a URBACT beneficiary city can also join the existing network through the local URBACT group.
- Each beneficiary city should set up a local URBACT group to bring together relevant people who are interested in jointly developing integrated local policies.
- Local stakeholders join these groups as members on a voluntary basis and without financial compensation, but they can benefit from transnational visits, trainings and closed capacity building events.
Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV)
It is managed by the European Education and Culture Agency and aims to promote the values of the European Union and foster equality of citizens. Ukraine has signed an agreement to join the programme in 2024.
The programme’s budget is €1.55 billion until 2027.
The programme includes calls for proposals for municipalities that develop international partnerships:
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Twinning projects: Call Town Twinning 2025 (CERV-2025-CITIZENS-TOWN-TT)
Deadline: 17 September 2025, 17:00 Brussels time
To participate in this programme, Ukrainian municipalities need to have at least 1 partner in the EU that is a legal entity. It is important that at least 25 participants take part in the activities of the proposed project.
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Networks of Towns: Networks of Towns (CERV-2025-CITIZENS-TOWN-NT)
Deadline: 27 March 2025, 17:00 Brussels time
Programme topics:
- Increasing citizens’ engagement
- Work with minorities (linguistic and ethnic);
- Citizens’ participation in political life (voting rights, open democratic governance);
- Climate change and energy supply issues.
We have already written more about CERV in the article ‘How can communities with partners in Europe implement small exchange projects within the European CERV programme?’
Erasmus+
Programme of international cooperation of the European Union with other countries in the field of education, youth and sport.
Programme priorities:
- Encouraging young people to participate in European democracy
- Promoting adult learning, especially new skills and skills required by the labour market
- Helping to reduce unemployment, especially among young people
- Supporting innovation, collaboration and reform
- Reducing early school leaving
- Promoting cooperation and mobility with EU partner countries
- Development of the European dimension in sport, including grassroots sport
Erasmus+ offers opportunities for:
- Individuals who will be able to spend a period of mobility abroad and receive language training;
- Organisations to collaborate on projects in the fields of academic and vocational training, schools, adult and youth education and European sporting events.
Calls open annually in autumn with a deadline in winter-spring
Read more about the programme in the article ‘Erasmus+ for All. How can Ukrainian municipalities and organisations apply for and win EU calls for proposals?’.
LIFE Programme
This programme is focused on three areas:
- LIFE Nature and Biodiversity (NAT)
- LIFE Circular Economy and Quality of Life (CEQL)
- LIFE Climate Action (CLIMA)
This programme is the main tool for implementing the European Green Deal, under which Europe is to become the first climate-neutral continent by 2050.
The key event of the EU Green Week programme, which will take place on 3-5 June 2025 in Brussels
The programme is closely integrated with the Covenant of Mayors initiative.
New calls for proposals are expected in April 2025
Horizon Europe
EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation. In particular, regarding the achievement of sustainable development goals, overcoming the challenges of climate change, creating a competitive economy, developing basic research and nurturing scientific talent.
Project calls are held in 6 clusters
- Climate, Energy and Mobility – one of the most relevant for communities.
The programme goals are achieved by creating missions:
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- Adapting to climate change: Supporting at least 150 European regions and communities to become climate resilient by 2030
- Cancer: working with the Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan to improve the lives of more than 3 million people by 2030 through prevention, treatment and solutions that help them live longer and better lives
- Restore our ocean and waters by 2030
- 100 climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030 – relevant for communities (as part of this initiative, communities are developing Climate Action Plans, some communities joined the Net zero cities twinning programme last year through the U-CAN and SUN4Ukraine projects)
Creative Europe
An open call for organisations working in the field of culture to disseminate the European cultural product and develop cross-border cooperation in the creation of cultural products.
Budget: Support for more than 130 projects worth €60 million
Deadline: 15 May 2025
Cities4Cities | United4Ukraine are partner initiatives that joined forces in September 2022. Cities4Cities was founded by the German city of Sindelfingen under the patronage of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe. United4Ukraine was launched by SALAR International and the city of Lviv with the support of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). Since 2024, Cities4Cities | United4Ukraine has been a part of Sweden’s flagship program for Ukraine, Polaris, “Support to Multi-Level Governance in Ukraine”.