The projects presented at 4Esp 2010 will target the 10 countries from East Europe that have recently joined the European Union between 2004 and 2007: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia; with a total population exceeding 102 million. Candidate Countries to follow soon: Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, and Iceland; have a total population of 80 million.
These new EU members from East Europe are all NATO members and they also benefit from funds related to the environment and security as part of the ENVSEC initiative in conjunction with the United Nations.
Until 2013, the European Union is granting non-reimbursable Structural and Cohesion Fund grants of about 308 billion Euros to undertake projects in a variety of sectors. Many of these projects will be performed by the private sector, in partnership with public authorities and is offered to all the new EU member states from Central and Eastern Europe.
In addition, the Swiss, via its bilateral agreements with the EU, have allocated the sum of about 770 million Euros to the new EU member states, with an additional 200 million Euros for Romania and Bulgaria, pro rata to their respective population as of June 2010
All these funds and grants are intended to boost these countries economies and reduce the economic and social disparities in an enlarged EU. Thus at the 4Esp 2010 Fair, these projects are presented for eligible funding to the European Union, NATO, and the Swiss, plus the G8 countries not members of the EU namely USA, Cananda, Russia and Japan.
