EU Programmes

This section presents the main European Union programmes accessible to the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT’s). Bonaire is an OCT under the Jurisdiction of the Netherlands.

EDF funds
The European Development Fund (EDF) provides OCT’s with a variety of funding from EU programmes, including assistance for cooperation with other countries, particularly developing countries. The 9th and 10th EDF fund for Bonaire was spent on sanitation. The 11th is currently ongoing in budget support to Bonaire’s youth policy and includes planning for the construction of sport and after-school facilities near schools on the island. The 11th is the last EDF, after that there is a new financing instrument for the next EU financing programming 2021-2027, and the EDF is going to be integrated/absorbed into the NDICI, please read this document. Under the 11th EDF regional funds, the Caribbean OCT's are currently also benefitting from the RESEMBID programme (Resilience, Sustainable Energy, Marine Biodiversity programme).

In general, OCT's are eligible to the programmes managed directly by the European Union, that provide funding in the form of grants for specific projects in relation to EU policies, usually following a competitive ‘call for proposals’, where part of the funding comes from the EU, part from other sources. Bonaire has been successfully involved in Erasmus + projects, RESEMBID and BEST 2.0.