EU-Civil Society Facility Programme: Supporting Capacity Building and Partnership of Civil Society in Montenegro

Deadline: 18 June 2020

The European Union (EU) is currently accepting proposals from eligible organizations for its “Civil Society Facility Programme: Supporting Capacity Building and Partnership of Civil Society in Montenegro”.

Objectives

The global objective of this call for proposals is: to strengthen participatory democracies and the EU integration process in Montenegro by empowering civil society to actively take part in decision making and by stimulating an enabling legal and financial environment for civil society.
The specific objective(s) of this call for proposals are:
- To build the capacity of CSOs to be professional, effective and accountable independent actors.
- To contribute to the establishment of an enabling financial environment supportive of institutional sustainability of CSOs.

Priority Issues

The priorities of this call for proposals are:

Strengthening civil society organisations through capacity development and mentoring, in particular for internal accountability, outreach and citizen participation.
Promoting joint actions of local authorities and civil society actors to support culture and creative sector´s contributing to local sustainable social and economic development.
Promoting joint actions of civil society in order to promote share of experiences, networking and mentoring.
Overseeing and contributing to effectiveness, accountability, transparency of public institutions in the accession process.
Increasing the involvement of civil society actors in policy dialogue with public authorities and monitoring of participatory democracies (notably in the different EU negotiation chapters).
Enhancing quality social service delivery (use of innovative solutions, application of European best practices).
Promoting innovative actions targeting youth.
Promoting actions outside of the capital and in particular in less developed areas.

Size of Grants

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

Minimum amount: EUR 3.250.000
Maximum amount: EUR 3.500.000

Location

Actions must take place in Montenegro.

Duration

The initial planned duration of an action may not be lower than 32 months nor exceed 36 months.

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 or a Consortium of CSO and
  - be established in Montenegro or a Member State of the European Union or of a country covered by the CIR
    - For UK applicants: Please be aware that following the entry into force of the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement on 1 February 2020 and in particular Articles 127(6), 137 and 138, the references to natural or legal persons residing or established in a Member State of the European Union are to be understood as including natural or legal persons residing or established in the United Kingdom. UK residents and entities are therefore eligible to participate under this call.
  - 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 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 two Montenegrin co-applicants and the local capacity development must be strengthened through some proposed activities.
Co-applicant(s)
- Co-applicants are obligatory (minimum 1 and maximum 3) and if the applicant is a national of an eligible country other than Montenegro, they must have at least two Montenegrin co-applicants 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.
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.