European Union Call to improve the security of citizens in BiH

Deadline: 1-Feb-22

The European Union (EU) is pleased to announce a grant program entitled “European Union Police Assistance for Bosnia and Herzegovina” with an aim to improve the security of citizens in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Objectives & Priorities

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

• To enhance the effectiveness of institutions involved in the fight against transnational organised crime, corruption, drugs, money laundering, cybercrime, trafficking of human beings, terrorism, radicalisation, violent extremism, corruption and ensure better institutional interoperability,
• To further improve the collection and data exchange, and data protection according to the EU applicable standards and best practices,
• To improve governance standards, to embed stability and progress towards EU membership, better identify and respond to threats, and strengthen capacities to prevent and fight crimes.

The priorities of this call for proposals are:

• to build compatible crime fighting infrastructure at all levels, in order to foster effective cooperation in criminal matters across the BiH jurisdictions;
• enhance capacity of LEAs to effectively prevent and fight transnational organised crime, corruption, terrorism, money laundering, drugs, cybercrime, radicalisation and violent extremism in BiH;
• align with European standards and improve police legislation and by laws, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), Books of Rules (BoR), Guidelines, Memoranda of Understandings (MoUs) and other required legal documents to establish the legal basis for better and more effective utilization of police capacities;
• promote better use of Special Investigative Measures (SIMs)in line with EU best practices and standards as well as joint investigation teams;
• enhance effectiveinternal and international coordination, cooperation and information exchange;
• support development of the country’s personal data protection capacity and alignment with EU’s acquis in the area;
• provide effective legal and investigative tools to Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) and prosecutors to timely investigate, prosecute and sanction severe crime and to utilize proactive investigations;
• support the LEAs to develop and implement human rights based approaches to policing, in full compliance with European standards;
• support to the authorities in demonstrating progress towards establishing a track record of proactive investigations, confirmed indictments, prosecutions and final convictions against organised crime and corruption, including at high-level;

Components

The action is foreseen to be implemented through sectorial all-inclusive approach. The indicative key sub-sectorial components are pre-identified:

• Fight against transnational organised/serious crime, Trafficking of Human Beings (THB), Drugs and corruption
• Countering terrorism, P/CVE, cybercrime
• Countering Financial crime, Money Laundering
• Support the enhancement of effective cooperation among law enforcement bodies and with prosecutors; and judges
• Enhancing external cooperation and coordination, information exchange, as well as international cooperation and coordination with EUROPOL and Interpol
• Support for drafting legislation, in line with EU acquis, European standards and best practices(improve respective bylaws and police legislation, SOPs, BoR, Guidelines, MoUs and other required legal documents, including personal data protection area
• Support to the authorities in demonstrating progress towards establishing a track record of proactive investigations, confirmed indictments, prosecutions and final convictions against organised crime and corruption, including at high-level
• Enhance border security, and fight cross border organised crime
• Complementary assistance to procure required equipment to support better use of Special Investigative measures (SIMs), effective investigations and forensic capacities
• Procurement of complementary specialised IT equipment that will enhance the capacity of the LEAs and further strengthening of data security and exchange
• Communication and outreach to BiH citizens / EU Visibility.

Funding Information

• The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 10 000 000.
• The contracting authority reserves the right not to award all available funds.
• Size of grants
• Any grant requested under this call for proposals must not exceed:
  • Maximum amount: EUR10 000 000

Eligibility Criteria

• Lead applicant(s)
  • In order to be eligible for a grant, the lead applicant must:
    • be a legal person,
    • be non-profit-making
    • be established in a Member State of the European Union, or in the United Kingdom
    • be an administration of a Member State of the European Union or of the United Kingdom or their mandated bodies, entrusted with responsibilities related to the implementation of activities relevant to the call 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 are not obligatory, however, taking into account the size of the grant and the complexity of the task; lead applicants are encouraged to work with co-applicants, including respective administrations from other eligible countries or their mandated bodies. This could result in a wide range of qualified senior experts gathered from the administrations or mandated bodies (pool of experts), provided that national approaches can be harmonized within this partnership or components are divided by the 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.
  • 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, 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.

For more information, visit https://bit.ly/3CbCd7j