BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 15. Turkmenistan benefits from all EU regional programs in the domains of governance, commerce, support to the private sector (mostly small and medium companies), border management and fight against drug trafficking, vocational education and training, and health, the European Commission’s Lead Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Peter Stano told Trend.
According to him, Turkmenistan benefits, for the first time, from the thematic program for "Civil Society Organisations".
"The EU awarded three small grants to local Turkmen CSOs in autumn 2023 to strengthen their capacities to engage in policy dialogues as well as in the implementation and monitoring of national development programs and plans in the sectors of social affairs, rights of people with disabilities, environment, energy, and climate change," he said.
Furthermore, Peter Stano stressed that the EU is implementing two regional Team Europe Initiatives (TEIs), joint endeavors by the European Commission, EU Member States, and European financing institutions, in Central Asia: on Water, Energy, and Climate Change and on Digital Connectivity.
"For both, we adopted two regional programs worth 20 million euros each to speed up their implementation. Turkmenistan will benefit from both of them. The implementation of the TEI on Water, Energy, and Climate Change will start in the first quarter of 2024, while the Digital Connectivity TEI will start being implemented in the second quarter of next year," he added.