Programme Organisation

The Monitoring Committee (MC)

The Monitoring Committee is in charge of supervising the Programme and its overall task is to ensure the quality and effectiveness of the Programme implementation. Organisations from each Programme partner country is represented in the committee.

The Steering Committees (SC)

The Steering Committees are responsible for the selection of projects. Interreg Aurora has two Steering Committees, one for sub-area Aurora and one for sub-area Sápmi. The Steering Committees make the selection of projects based on pre-defined selection criteria. Organisations from each Programme partner country is represented in the Committees.

The Managing Authority (MA) and the Norwegian Managing Organisation (NMO)

The Managing Authority is formally responsible for managing the Programme. The appointed Managing Authority is the County Administrative Board of Norrbotten based in Luleå, Sweden. The Managing Authority consists of a Programme Director, a Programme Communication Officer and Programme Financial Officers.

The Managing Authority issues the decision document regarding the ERDF-funding (European Regional Development Fund) for the projects and handles the payments of ERDF-funding to the projects. The Managing Authority also handles the claim for funding from the European Commission and are responsible for programme communication.

The Norwegian Managing Organisation, Troms and Finnmark County Council issues the decision document regarding the IR-funding (Norwegian Interreg-funding) for the projects and handles the payments of IR-funding to the projects.

The Joint Secretariat (JS)

The Joint Secretariat consists of Programme Officers based in all three programme countries and they assist with any queries regarding project ideas, partnerships, draft applications, project management, etc. The Joint Secretariat has a role in the assessment of project applications and in the drafting of decision proposals to the Steering Committees. Each approved project will be assigned to a Programme officer, who is responsible for managing any conditions related to project approval, for monitoring project progress and for providing guidance and support to project managers in their project implementation.

The Joint Secretariat is based in:
– Luleå, Umeå and Östersund in Sweden
– Inari, Rovaniemi and Vaasa in Finland
– Tromsø and Snåsa in Norway.

Controllers

The task for the Controllers are to check payment applications submitted by the projects. The Controllers check that all project expenditure is eligible according to the European regulations, the Programme Eligibility Rules as well as national legislation. The controls can be both administrative and on-the-spot. 

The Audit Authority (AA)

The Audit Authority is responsible for sample checks of projects to ensure compliance with the necessary rules and regulations. Second level control or audit refers to checks to verify the expenditure declared. This check is based on a representative sample and does not include all projects. The audit is made after payment of the funding and may include both desk and “on-the-spot” audits. The Second Level Audit is performed by the Audit Authority, assisted by the national representatives of the Group of Auditors.