Grant to Support CSOs in the fields of Good Governance, Rule of Law and Environment (Albania)

Deadline: 2-Jun-22

The European Commission (EC) is calling for proposals to support Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in the fields of Good Governance, Rule of Law and Environment.

The overall objective of the Civil Society Facility and Media Programme is to strengthen participatory democracies and the EU integration process in the Western Balkans and Turkey by empowering civil society organisations (hereafter CSOs) in the decision-making process and by stimulating an enabling legal and financial environment for civil society.

Objectives

• The global objective of this call for proposals is to strengthen the role and capacities of CSOs and CSOs networks/platforms to engage in monitoring, oversight, advocacy, education and awareness raising around the issues of good governance and rule of law, as well as environment, climate change and nature conservation.
• The specific objective of this lot is to support CSOs and CSOs networks to play their oversight and monitoring roles in the fields of good governance and rule of law, and advocate, educate and raise awareness for better governance and rule of law reforms.

Priorities

• Lot 1
  • The priorities of this lot are:
    • Anti-corruption
    • Justice
    • Budget transparency and accountability
• Lot 2
  • The priorities of this lot are:
    • Support CSOs’ role and capacities in fighting environmental and climate degradation and environmental crime, through influencing and monitoring the policy process and advocating for changes and reforms;
    • Strengthened cooperation among CSOs and other stakeholders in policy and concrete actions that increase the protection of environment and biodiversity and the number of actions against climate change, at local and national level in order to empower civil society to participate in all policy/reform processes, including their implementation;
    • Increase awareness and support behavioural change to protect the environment, biodiversity, and fight environmental crime and climate change.

Funding Information

• The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 3,500,000.00
• Indicative allocation of funds by lot:
  • Lot 1 – Support to CSOs in the fields of Good Governance and Rule of Law: EUR 2,000,000.00
  • Lot 2 – Support to CSOs in the fields of environmental, climate change, biodiversity and conservation issues: EUR 1,500,000.00
• Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts:
  • Lot 1
    • minimum amount: EUR 400,000.00
    • maximum amount: EUR 500,000.00
  • Lot 2
    • minimum amount: EUR 375,000.00
    • maximum amount: EUR 500,000.00

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
    • non-governmental organisation
    • be established in Albania  or a Member State of the European Union  or in another IPA III beneficiary , or in one of the members of the European Economic Area covered by 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
• Co-applicant(s)
  • For both lots, there must be at least two (2) up to a maximum of five (5) co-applicants. Either the applicant or one of the co-applicants has to be registered in Albania. e.g. if the Lead Applicant is not registered in Albania, then at least one of the Co-applicants has to be registered in Albania.
  • 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.
• 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.

For more information, visit https://bit.ly/3jF6TWD