The new European Neighbourhood Instrument will provide the bulk of funding to the 16 partner countries covered by the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) in line with the principles of differentiation and the incentive based approach. The ENI will support strengthening of relations with Neighbourhood countries and bring tangible benefits to both the EU and its partners.

In addition to bilateral cooperation, ENI funding also supports regional, Neighbourhood-wide and Cross Border Cooperation (CBC) programmes. These programmes are designed to complement the bilateral cooperation programmes:

Regional cooperation programmes tackle challenges with a regional dimension and promote interstate co-operation on issues of mutual interest in the different regions of the ENP (regional programmes Southern Neighbourhood & regional programmes Eastern Neighbourhood);

Cross Border Cooperation (CBC) promotes economic development and addressing the shared challenges such as the health, environment education in border areas between EU Member States and ENP partner countries.

A key element of the revised ENP is to strengthen and promote the role of civil society actors in reforms and democratic changes taking place in the Neighbourhood countries through increased financial support and capacity-building. In particular local civil society organisations and their capacity to engage with public authorities are being strengthened.

In addition to support for civil society under the ENI bilateral and regional cooperation programmes, various additional EU initiatives and programmes also support civil society in the ENP region, such as the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR), the Non-State Actors and Local Authorities thematic programme (NSALA) and the ENI Civil Society Facility