Deadline: 27-Jun-23
The European Commission (EC) is now accepting proposals to strengthen participatory democracy and the EU integration and approximation process in Montenegro through an enhanced contribution by civil society.
Objectives
The specific objective(s) of this call for proposals is to increase capacity and recognition of key stakeholders (civil society, youth organisations, farmers’ organisations and other civic actors, as well as local authorities) as drivers of local development.
The priorities to be pursued by the grantee awarded under this call for proposals are:
- Youth employment, especially in rural areas, including by improving digital skills, informal education and promotion of vocational training,
- Development of small businesses of interest for youth, particularly in rural/marginalised areas
- Social entrepreneurship, in particular in rural/marginalised areas,
- Innovative cultural and tourism initiatives, including eco-tourism, and capitalising on local and traditional products and crafts
- Local youth participation and activism in different policy areas,
- Farmers associations’ engagement in agriculture and rural development policies, including enhanced youth participation in these areas.
The action should address all priorities of this call, whether through its own activities or through projects implemented with financial support to third parties.
Funding Information
- The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 500,000. Only one contract is foreseen to be awarded. The contracting authority reserves the right not to award all available funds.
- Financial support to third parties must be the main purpose of the action and is considered essential to achieve the objective of the action.
- Any grant requested under this lot must have following amount:
- Minimum amount: EUR 450 000
- Maximum amount: EUR 500 000
- The initial planned duration of an action may not be lower than 36 months nor exceed 42 months.
Types of Activity
Types of activity which may be financed under this call are those directly contributing to the achievement of the objectives:
- Promoting joint actions of local authorities and civil society actors to support the priorities.
- Promotion of youth activism, participation, volunteering, skills, youth work and policies.
- Improvement of the relevant legal, fiscal and institutional framework to expand and create social enterprises or project models in urban and rural areas.
- Supporting farmer associations/ unions/ organizations to advocate for agriculture and rural development policy, food safety actions, quality and standards and other actions.
- Supporting grassroots organisations and community initiatives to promote environment actions.
- Reinforcing CSOs’ contributions to policy and watchdog initiatives at local level.
- Strengthening governance, transparency and evidence based work of civil society.
- Testing and promoting grassroots organisations’ and community-initiatives to create self-employment, for example by enhancing engagement of rural households in rural tourism activities (via for example training in areas such as hospitality, adding value to local produce and crafts, Promotion, etc.)
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 Organization, a Consortium of CSO and
- Be established in a Member State of the European Union or in Montenegro or other country eligible under IPAIII or in one of the members of the European Economic Area covered by the basic act/CIR,
- 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 24 months prior to the deadline for submission of project proposals.
- Potential applicants may not participate in calls for proposals or be awarded grants if they are in any of the situations;
- Lead applicants, co-applicants, affiliated entities and, in case of legal entities, persons who have powers of representation, decision-making or control over the lead applicant, the co-applicants and the affiliated entities are informed that, should they be in one of the situations of early detection or exclusion, personal details (name, given name if natural person, address, legal form and name and given name of the persons with powers of representation, decision-making or control, if legal person) may be registered in the early detection and exclusion system, and communicated to the persons and entities concerned in relation to the award or the execution of a grant contract. In this respect, provisionally selected lead applicants, co-applicants and affiliated entities or those placed in the reserve list are obliged to declare that they are not in one of the exclusion situations through a signed declaration on honour. For grants of EUR 15 000 or less, no declaration on honour is required.
- In order to be eligible for a grant, the lead applicant must:
- Co-applicant(s)
- Co-applicants are obligatory (minimum 1). If the Lead applicant is a national of an eligible country other than Montenegro, they must have at least one Montenegrin co-applicant and the local capacity development must be strengthened through some proposed activities.
- 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-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.
- 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’. A sole applicant or a sole beneficiary is a legal entity formed by several entities (a group of entities) which together comply with the criteria for being awarded the grant. For example, an association is formed by its members.
For more information, visit EC.