Yesterday, 29 August, the first public presentation of all the projects financed by the first SPF GO! 2025 call, which closed in 2023, took place in the presence of the beneficiaries and local authorities, as well as citizens. In the Auditorium of Friulian Culture in via Roma, EGTC GO presented an overview of the 44 projects, including testimonials from some of them. The overview of projects, ranging from film culture to fairy tales, through passive bilingualism and haute cuisine, to wine and theatre, demonstrates the variety and creativity that will be poured into the territory through the more than 350 events, some already underway, others planned. The projects will also contribute to the training of over a thousand people on the proposed topics, helping to leave an imprint on the professionalism of cross-border citizens.

A number of institutional representatives attended the event: in addition to the president of the EGTC GO Paolo Petiziol and the mayors of Gorizia and Nova Gorica, Rodolfo Ziberna and Samo Turel, also the Councillor for Finance of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region Barbara Zilli. The GO! 2025 Small Projects Fund draws on the funds of the Interreg VI-A Italy-Slovenia Programme 2021-2027 and is therefore financed by the European Union to the tune of about 4.5 million; the first call has also received further funding of 3.2 million from the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia.

Culture and territory: these are the two major thematic areas into which the EGTC GO team has divided the 44 funded projects, presented to the public by project managers Lara Devetak, Greta Modula and Maja Radovanović. Further subcategories revolve around the themes of cinema, film and cartoon production; museums and cultural heritage; theatre, performance and dance; music; language and cultural promotion. The territory theme focuses instead on the three sub-categories of food and wine, tourism and sport. The projects are based over a wide area with, first and foremost, Gorizia and Nova Gorica and the surrounding area, but also Ljubljana, Trieste, Ajdovščina, Aquileia, Postojna, Venice, Udine, Koper, Sežana, Treviso. In total, more than 350 events are planned, of which about 230 for the culture cluster and about 120 for the territory cluster. The sub-category with the largest number of events planned, 130, is that of theatre, entertainment and dance, while projects with the theme of tourism include the organisation of almost 100 events. The record for the largest number of people trained, on the other hand, is expected from the category of projects relating to museums and cultural heritage: more than 300.

Some of those directly involved also spoke about their project experience, namely representatives of the B.G.A.F. (Borderless Generation Audiovisual Festival), P-S (Prečkanja-Sconfinamenti), Walk2Spirit and GO! Pasta. All projects were present at the small exhibition at the end of the event.

EGTC GO Director Romina Kocina and Deputy Director Tomaž Konrad then gave a structural overview of the GO! 2025 Small Project Fund: in addition to the first call, which financed the 44 projects covered by the event, in 2024 it was the turn of the second call. On this occasion, 134 project proposals were received, of which 116 passed the administrative checks. The evaluation committee has worked hard over the past few months and the ranking list with the funded projects is expected to be published next week. To be eligible for funding, projects must exceed a threshold of 85 points out of 100. In line with the previous call, the percentage of funded projects in relation to those submitted is approximately 10%. The budget for the second SPF call amounts to just under EUR 1.5 million.

Some updates concerning the Interreg Italy-Slovenia Programme 2021-2027 were conveyed by representatives of the INTERREG VI-A ITALY-SLOVENIA Managing Authority at the FVG Region.