Deadline: 6-Jun-23
The European Commission is pleased to launch a call for proposals to promote and protect:
- Human rights and fundamental freedoms;
- Democracy; and
- The rule of law and to strengthen participatory democracies and the EU integration and approximation process in Serbia, through an enhanced contribution by civil society.
The specific objective(s) of this call for proposals are:
- LOT 1: To protect and empower individuals to contribute to the full enjoyment by everyone of all human rights, be they civil, political, economic, social or cultural rights.
- LOT 2: To raise awareness and create participation of Serbian citizens, in particular the youth, about the benefits and the implications of Serbia’s EU accession process on their everyday lives, as well as economic, social and cultural interlinkages between Serbia and the EU in one of the regions of Serbia as defined below:
- Lot 2: Western Serbia and Šumadija formed of the following districts: Mačvanski, Kolubarski, Zlatiborski, Moravički, Raški, Šumadijski, Pomoravski and Rasinski.
- Lot 3: South Serbia formed of the following districts: Nišavski, Pirotski, Jablanički and Pčinjski.
- Lot 4: East Serbia formed of the following districts: Podunavski, Braničevski, Borski, Zaječarski and Toplički.
- Lot 5: Vojvodina, formed of the following districts: Severnobački, Južnobački, Zapadnobački, Severnobanatski, Srednjebanatski, Južnobanatski and Sremski.
Priority (ies)
The priority(ies) of this call for proposals is/are:
- LOT 1:
- To contribute to expanding the space for civil society;
- To provide short-, medium- and long-term holistic support to human rights defenders.
- To expand and strengthen civil society’s active engagement with their constituency, allowing citizens to become active participants of Serbia’s EU accession process;
- LOT 2, 3, 4, 5:
- To promote the values at the core of the EU, as enshrined in Article 2 of the Treaty of the EU , by engaging with the citizens through participatory and deliberative methods;
- To support youth initiatives and dialogue in relation to the priorities;
Funding Information
- The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 5,772,000. The contracting authority reserves the right not to award all available funds. Indicative allocation of funds by lot:
- LOT 1 – Human Rights and Democracy – EUR 3,300,000
- LOT 2-5 – Civil Society Facility – EUR 2,472,000 (EUR 618,000 per lot)
- Size of grants
- Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts:
- LOT 1:
- Minimum amount: EUR 200,000
- Maximum amount: EUR 500,000
- LOT 2, 3, 4, 5:
- Minimum amount: EUR 500,000
- Maximum amount: EUR 618,000
Eligibility Criteria
Lead applicant (s)
- 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: civil society organisation8 , including nongovernmental organisation 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 and
- For Lot 1: be established in a Member State of the European Union or in any eligible country, as stipulated in the basic act NDICI-GE10.
- For Lot 2, 3, 4, 5 11: be established in12 the Republic of Serbia, or in a Member State of the European Union or of the European Economic Area, or in another IPA III beneficiary country, or in any of the Neighbourhood partner countries and territories covered by NDICI-GE.
Co-applicant(s)
- For Lot 1, in case the lead applicant is not established in the Republic of Serbia, it must act with at least one co-applicant that is established in the Republic of Serbia.
- For Lot 2, 3, 4, 5 the lead applicant needs to have at least 2 co-applicants established in the Region15 it is applying for.
- 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.
- If awarded the grant contract, the co-applicant(s) (if any) will become beneficiary(ies) in the action (together with the coordinator)
- In addition, please note that contracts cannot be awarded to or signed with applicants included in the lists of EU restrictive measures.
- The split of functions of co-applicants with the lead applicant as well as among the co-applicants and how the work of the co-applicants will assist in their own capacity building must be well elaborated at the full application stage in the Description of Action as well as in the Budget of the action.
Affiliated Entities
- 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 European Commission.