Call for Proposals: Civil Society Facility Program (Serbia)

Deadline: 18-May-21

The European Commission is calling proposals for Civil Society Facility Program that aim to build stronger democracies, improving accountability systems, and ultimately achieving better policy, economic and social development including social cohesion.

It seeks to empower civil society to fulfil the following key roles:

Creating stronger links to citizens by engaging in public policy processes, reaching out to society as a whole including marginalized groups and grass-root communities and encouraging civic activism and public participation in policy-making across all areas;
Becoming professional and reliable partners in the policy-making and reform process through evidence-based advocacy sectors and close monitoring of reforms across all sectors;
Contributing to enhancing responsible and inclusive leadership in the political, economic and social spheres and provide early warning in case of societal change,
Strengthening economic development and create better links with business by promoting entrepreneurship, social innovation and job creation.

Objectives

The global objective of this call for proposals is to improve dialogue between the Civil Society and the government institutions, and to increase capacities of the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to address reform processes and EU integration process.
The specific objective(s) of this call for proposals is:
- to increase own capacities and effectiveness of the Serbian CSOs, directly through the contracted grants, to monitor and participate in reform processes in the fields of environment and climate action; economic policy and competitiveness; and foreign, security and defence policies; and
- to increase the overall capacities of grassroots movements through flexible financial support to third parties mechanisms particularly in the field of environment, climate action and socio-economic development.

Priorities

The priorities of this call for proposals are capacity building, monitoring and advocacy in the areas of:

environment and climate action,
economic policy and competitiveness,
socio-economic development,
foreign, security and defence policies.

Funding Information

The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 2,500,000. The contracting authority reserves the right not to award all available funds.
Indicative allocation of funds by lot/geographical distribution:
- Lot 1 – EUR 700,000
- Lot 2 – EUR 1,800,000
Lot 1
- 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 150,000
Lot 2
- Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts:
  - minimum amount: EUR 820,000
  - maximum amount: EUR 900,000
For all Lots
- Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum percentages of total eligible costs of the action:
  - Minimum percentage: 60 % of the total eligible costs of the action.
  - Maximum percentage: 95% of the total eligible costs of the action.

Eligibility Criteria

Lead applicant

In order to be eligible for a grant, the lead applicant must:
- Lot 1:
  - be a legal person
  - be non-profit-making
  - be a specific type of organisation such as: civil society organisations
  - be established in the Republic of Serbia at least 2 years before the call is launched
  - 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.
- Lot 2:
  - be a legal person
  - be non-profit-making
  - be a specific type of organisation such as: civil society organisations
  - be established in the Republic of Serbia or a Member State of the European Union at least 2 years before the call is launched
  - 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.

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.
Co-applicants must sign the mandate.
If awarded the grant contract, the co-applicant(s) (if any) will become beneficiary(ies) in the action (together with the coordinator)

Affiliated entities

The lead applicant and its co-applicants may act with affiliated entity(ies).
Only the following entities may be considered as affiliated entities to the lead applicant and/or to coapplicant(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.