EU Call for Proposals: Preserve, Reinforce and Promote Palestinian Culture as Part of Fostering National Identity

Deadline: 30 April 2019

The European Union (EU) is seeking proposals from eligible organisations for a program entitled “Preserve, Reinforce and Promote Palestinian Culture as Part of Fostering National Identity” to protect and promote Palestinian identity contributing to human development in Palestine by involving the main institutional stakeholders and reinforcing the role of the civil society organisations.

The specific objective(s) of this call for proposals are:

• Support Palestinian cultural operators in developing their capacities;
• Promotion of Palestinian culture in Europe;
• Support to small cultural projects, especially for organizations based in remote and rural areas.

The expected results under this specific objective are:

• Improved management capacity of cultural operators in Palestine.
• Accessible opportunities to Palestinian youth and women for creativity and self-expression through cultural means.
• Enhanced engagement of Palestinian audience, with particular focus on young and female audience, in remote and rural areas in cultural actions.
• Increased participation of Palestinian artists in European festivals and competitions.
• Improved public awareness in Europe about the Palestinian culture and narrative.

Priorities Area

The priorities of this call for proposals are:

• Promoting values such as tolerance, respect for diversity, human rights and fundamental freedoms.
• Investing in long-term cultural programmes for the youth.
• Promoting greater civic engagement of women and youth.
• Priority will be given to projects where a Palestinian organisation is the lead applicant.

Types of Lot

• Lot 1: Enhancement of a more diverse, professional and sustainable Palestinian cultural sector able to work at Palestinian and European level
  • The objectives of Lot 1 are twofold:
    • Strengthening capacities and skills of the more mature Palestinian cultural operators to be more professional, with particular attention to specific skills for youth and women;
    • Contributing to promote the Palestinian identity in Europe by increasing audiences and developing access to European and international markets
  • Lot 2: Enhancement of cultural expression in Palestinian remote and rural areas as well as areas that are less exposed to the various artistic expressions.
    • Under lot 2, applicants shall propose financial support to third parties in order to help achieving the objectives of the action. Applicants shall also present detailed risk assessment and mitigation measures to ensure the implementation of the activities in the targeted localities.
    • If the allocation indicated for a specific lot cannot be used due to insufficient quality or number of proposals received, the contracting authority reserves the right to reallocate the remaining funds to another lot.

Size of Grants for Lot 1 and Lot 2

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

• minimum amount: EUR 250,000
• maximum amount: EUR 500,000

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 specific type of organisation such as: a non-governmental organisation, educational institute, cultural network, cultural operator and
    • be established in a Member State of the European Union or in Palestine (West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza)
  • ‘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, you 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 Annex II –general conditions of the grant agreement’.
  • This obligation does not apply to international organisations 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.

How to Apply

In order to apply for the grants, applicants have to register themselves in PADOR, an on-line database via given website.

For more information, please visit https://bit.ly/2VWARry and download the guidelines.