European Commission: Seeking Applications for its Support to CSO Partnerships and Networks Grant Programme

Deadline: 18 June 2018

European Commission is seeking applicants for its ‘Support to CSO Partnerships and Networks’ grant programme to enable civic engagement and participatory democracy in Kosovo by promoting partnership, cooperation and dialogue among citizens, civil society organisations and public institutions for enhanced inclusiveness and participation in decision making.

The specific objective of this call for proposals is to improve CS capacities and representativeness as effective and reliable partners in the EU integration process by promoting CSOs partnerships, networks and cooperation with public Authorities.

This call supports partnership and network of CSOs which demonstrates in their proposal to possess in-depth knowledge of the selected themes listed in the guidelines, complementarity and synergy of technical capacities of each co-applicant as well as transparent relations with constituencies/target groups/members as direct beneficiaries of the proposed actions.

Civil society (CS) in Kosovo is a key partner for the EU integration path. By fostering democratic values and pluralism in the society civil society organisations (CSOs) should encourage citizens represent their common interests and act as active contributors to decision making and policy dialogue.

Funding Information

Lot I: EUR 1,620,000
Lot II: EUR 1,620,000
Lot III:EUR 1,620,000

Eligibility Criteria

Lead applicant
- In order to be eligible for a grant, the lead applicant must:
- be a legal person and
- be non-profit-making and
- be a civil society organisation , and be established in Kosovo and
- 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
- have a minimum of 3 years of experience within the last 5 years in the thematic sector of the application
The applicant must act with at co-applicant(s) as specified hereafter.
The applicant must act in partnership with at least 3 co-applicant organisations of which at least 2 established in Kosovo and at least 1 from a Member State of the European Union
Applicants are encouraged to act with grass-root and/or organisations from other municipalities and/or another community within the borders of Kosovo.
Co-applicants
- 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.
- At least2 Co-applicants must satisfy all the eligibility criteria applicable to the lead applicant
- At least 1 Co-applicant must satisfy the eligibility criteria
- Shall be established in a Member State of the European Union other than Kosovo and shall possess track record of successful implementation of at least 3 projects, each with partners in at least 2 countries, in the thematic sector of the application.
- If awarded the grant contract, the co-applicant(s) (if any) will become beneficiary(ies) in the action (together with the Coordinator).
- Co-applicants must sign the mandate
Affliated Entities
- 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. Entities affiliated to applicant may hence be:
  - Entities directly or indirectly controlled by an applicant(daughter companies or first-tier subsidiaries).
  - They may also be entities controlled by an entity controlled by an 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.
The structural link shall as a general rule be neither limited to the action nor established for the sole purpose of its implementation. This means that the link would exist independently of the award of the grant; it should exist before the call for proposals and remain valid after the end of the action.
By way of exception, an entity may be considered as affiliated to an applicant even if it has a structural link specifically established for the sole purpose of the implementation of the action in the case of so-called “sole applicants” or “sole beneficiaries”.