EU seeking Proposals for Media Professionalism Programme 2019

Deadline: 3 September 2019

The European Union (EU) is currently seeking proposals from eligible organizations for its Media Professionalism Programme 2019 – Montenegro.

The global objective of this call for proposals is to strengthen participatory democracy and the EU integration process in Montenegro by empowering and stimulating an enabling professional and financial environment for pluralistic media.

The specific objectives of this call for proposals are:

To foster independent and investigative journalism in order to obtain quality media production in the areas related to Montenegro’s European integration process, both for national and local media.
To strengthen free, fair, professional and ethical journalism in Montenegro, with a special focus on media self-regulation.
To raise awareness about disinformation/information influence and strengthen media literacy.

Priorities

The priorities of this call for proposals are:

Further supporting investigative journalism in Montenegro.
Strengthening media professionalism and self-regulation.
Education and capacity building of media professionals.
Education of journalists and citizens related to media literacy.

Size of Grants

Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts:

minimum amount: EUR 100,000
maximum amount: EUR 250,000

Duration

The initial planned duration of an action may not be lower than 18 months nor exceed 36 months.

Location

Actions must take place in Montenegro. Actions outside of Podgorica will be considered as an asset.

Eligibility Criteria

Lead applicant
- In order to be eligible for a grant, the lead applicant must:
  - be a legal person and
  - be print/electronic/online media, news agencies, media production companies, professional media association and
  - be established in Montenegro, a Member State of the European Union or in a country covered by the Article 10 of the IPA regulation
  - be directly responsible for the preparation and management of the action with the co-applicant(s) and affiliated entity(ies), not acting as an intermediary and
  - be registered at least 12 months prior to the deadline for submission of project proposals and
  - if the applicant is a national of an eligible country other than Montenegro, they must have at least one Montenegrin co-applicant.
    - ‘For British applicants: Please be aware that eligibility criteria must be complied with for the entire duration of the grant. Unless sector-specific eligibility rules provide otherwise, if the United Kingdom withdraws from the EU during the grant period without concluding an agreement with the EU ensuring in particular that British applicants continue to be eligible, applicants will cease to receive EU funding (while continuing, where possible to participate) or will be required to leave the project on the basis of Article 12.2 (e) of the General Conditions of the grant agreement’.
- The lead applicant is encouraged to act with a media as co-applicant that is based outside Podgorica.
- In case the lead applicant is a media production company, they are obliged to partner with electronic media (Montenegrin television specifically) to ensure broadcasting of their product.
Co-applicant(s)
- Co-applicants participate in designing and implementing the action, and the costs they incur are eligible in the same way as those incurred by the lead applicant.
- Co-applicants must satisfy the eligibility criteria as applicable to the lead applicant himself.
- In addition to the categories referred above, the following are however also eligible:
  - civil society organizations;
  - educational institutions (public and private secondary schools and universities)
Affiliated entity(ies)
- The lead applicant and its co-applicant(s) may act with affiliated entity(ies).
- Only the following entities may be considered as affiliated entities to the lead applicant and/or to co-applicant(s):
  - Only entities having a structural link with the applicants (i.e. the lead applicant or a co-applicant), in particular a legal or capital link.
  - This structural link encompasses mainly two notions:
    - Control, as defined in Directive 2013/34/EU on the annual financial statements, consolidated financial statements and related reports of certain types of undertakings:
      - Entities affiliated to an applicant may hence be:
        
        Entities directly or indirectly controlled by the applicant (daughter companies or first-tier subsidiaries). They may also be entities controlled by an entity controlled by the applicant (granddaughter companies or second-tier subsidiaries) and the same applies to further tiers of control;
        
        Entities directly or indirectly controlling the applicant (parent companies). Likewise, they may be entities controlling an entity controlling the applicant;
        
        Entities under the same direct or indirect control as the applicant (sister companies).
    - Membership, i.e. the applicant is legally defined as a e.g. network, federation, association in which the proposed affiliated entities also participate or the applicant participates in the same entity (e.g. network, federation, association) as the proposed affiliated entities.