Deadline: 25-May-23
The European Commission (EC) is providing grants for protecting EU values and rights by combating hate speech and hate crime initiative under its Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values Programme (CERV).
Objectives
- All forms and manifestations of hatred are incompatible with the EU values and the fundamental rights enshrined in Article of the Treaty and the Charter. Hatred affects the individual victims and the groups they belong to, generates societal polarisation and silences wide sectors of the population, weakening pluralism and undermining respectful public democratic debates. The online world has amplified the negative effects of hate speech. Hate crimes are a direct violation of the victims’ fundamental right to dignity, to equality and non-discrimination. Combating hate speech and hate crime is therefore a key part of the Commission’s action to promote EU values and to ensure that the Charter is upheld.
- At EU level, the 2008 Council Framework Decision requires the criminalisation of certain forms of hate speech and hate crimes. Also, the Commission adopted a Communication in December 2021 inviting the Council of the European Union to extend the legal basis for EU-level criminalisation to other forms of hate speech and hate crime beyond the racist and xenophobic grounds already covered by the Framework Decision.
- Civil society organisations play a crucial role in combating hate speech and hate crime, thereby safeguarding and promoting fundamental rights. Projects under this priority should aim to enable civil society organisations to establish mechanisms of cooperation with public authorities to support the reporting of episodes of hate crime and hate speech; to ensure support to victims of hate speech and hate crime; and to support law enforcement, including through training or data collection methodologies and tools. Projects should also focus on activities that tackle hate speech online, including reporting content to IT companies, designing countering narrative and awareness raising campaigns, and educational activities to address the societal challenges of hate speech online.
Funding Information
- The available call budget is EUR 16 000 000.
- The check will normally be done for all coordinators, except:
- public bodies (entities established as public body under national law, including local, regional or national authorities) or international organisations
- if the project requested grant amount is not more than EUR 60 000.
- Duration Projects should normally range between 12 and 24 months (extensions are possible, if duly justified and through an amendment).
Expected Impact
- Protecting EU values and rights by combating hate speech and hate crime
- More effective outreach to individuals and groups at risk of hate victimisation, thereby raising awareness of their rights, including through schools and educational activities;
- Increased knowledge of EU and national hate crime and hate speech legislation;
- Strengthened national or local actions to enhance the capacity of authorities, in particular law enforcement agencies to detect bias indicators and to effectively investigate and prosecute offenses, including through multi-stakeholder cooperation;
- Enhanced hate crime recording and data collection methodologies;
- More effective mechanisms to report hate speech and hate crimes and to empower victims and witnesses to come forward;
- Enhanced assistance to victims to access specialist support, providing both victims and witnesses with emotional support, practical help and information;
- Enhanced hate crime recording and data collection methodologies;
- Increased knowledge on the prevalence and “ecosystems” of hatred on the different social media platforms, in the various national and linguistic contexts;
- Increased effectiveness of notice and action mechanisms by IT companies to to enable a prompt assessment and removal of hate speech content;
- Increased awareness among the general population about hate speech and its negative effects on democracy and pluralism;
- Enhanced resilience of civil society organisations to carry out their work against hateful groups and greater capacity to respond to attacks.
Eligibility Criteria
In order to be eligible, the applicants (lead applicants “Coordinator”, co-applicants and affiliated entities) must:
- For lead applicants (i.e. the “Coordinator”): be non-profit legal entities (private bodies)
- For co-applicants: be non-profit or profit legal entities (public or private bodies). Organisations which are profit-oriented may apply only in partnership with private non-profit organisations;
- be formally established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
- EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs))
- Activities must take place in any of the eligible countries (EU Member States);
- The EU grant applied for cannot be lower than EUR 75 000;
- The project can be either national or transnational; the application may involve one or more organisations (lead applicant “Coordinator” and coapplicants).
- Beneficiaries and affiliated entities must register in the Participant Register — before submitting the proposal — and will have to be validated by the Central Validation Service (REA Validation). For the validation, they will be requested to upload documents showing legal status and origin.
- Other entities may participate in other consortium roles, such as associated partners, subcontractors, third parties giving in-kind contributions, etc.
- Specific cases
- Natural persons — Natural persons are NOT eligible (with the exception of selfemployed persons, i.e. sole traders, where the company does not have legal personality separate from that of the natural person).
- International organisations — International organisations are eligible. The rules on eligible countries do not apply to them.
- Entities without legal personality — Entities which do not have legal personality under their national law may exceptionally participate, provided that their representatives have the capacity to undertake legal obligations on their behalf, and offer guarantees for the protection of the EU financial interests equivalent to that offered by legal persons
- EU bodies — EU bodies (with the exception of the European Commission Joint Research Centre) can NOT be part of the consortium.
For more information, visit EC.