MINELRES: EU funding opportunities to fight discrimination
MINELRES moderator
[email protected]
Fri Mar 4 20:43:56 2005
Original sender: Roma Network <[email protected]>
INFORMATION ON CALLS FOR PROPOSALS
TO BE PUBLISHED IN 2005
UNDER THE COMMUNITY ACTION PROGRAMME TO COMBAT DISCRIMINATION 2001 -
2006
Budget line: B8-503
Official responsible:
Ms Ivana SKODOVA, Directorate General Employment, Social Affairs and
Equal
Opportunities, Unit Anti-discrimination and Relations with the Civil
society,
E-mail: [email protected]
I. Call for proposals for the support towards the operating cost of a
European level organisation representing and defending the rights of
Roma
Context and objectives
One of the objectives of the Community Action Programme to combat
discrimination is to develop the capacity of Non Governmental
Organisations to tackle discrimination in an effective manner, in
particular by strengthening these organisations' means of action through
support for networking at European level.
The Council decision establishing the Community Action Programme to
combat discrimination makes provision for the Community to contribute to
the running costs of European-level networks of organisations of
non-governmental organisations. It stresses their important contribution
towards a better understanding of the diverse forms and effects of
discrimination and to ensuring that the design, implementation and
follow-up of the programme take account of the experience of people
exposed to discrimination. Recent developments have confirmed the
importance of ensuring a proper channel of communication between the
European Institutions and Roma communities. The study supported by the
Community Programme to combat discrimination on the situation of Roma,
confirms that although Roma constitute the largest ethnic minority in
Europe, they are among the most deprived groups and are vulnerable to
particular forms of discrimination. The Commission believes that in
order to ensure the mainstreaming of Roma issues in EU policies, it will
be necessary to provide ad hoc funding to a representative Roma network.
Such an approach has already been successfully implemented in the
disability context. Furthermore the Council Decision establishing the
Community Programme to combat discrimination calls for "specific forms
of discrimination to be accommodated". Such ad hoc support has
demonstrated added value and complementarity with mainstream
interventions.
Exclusion Criteria:
The candidate organisation shall not be subject of one of the grounds
for exclusion mentioned in Articles 93 and 94 of the Council Regulation
n� 1605/2002 of 25 June 2002 on the Financial Regulation applicable to
the general budget of the European Communities (OJ L 248 of 16.9.2002,
p.1).
Eligibility Criteria
To qualify for support for their running costs, European-level networks
must:
a) have their own legal status and be registered in accordance with the
domestic legislation of the Member State at the time of the submission
of the financial request;
b) be non-profit organisations;
c) purports to promoting and defending the rights of Roma;
d) be membership organisations, whose members are themselves
nationally-organised non-profit organisations established in at least
eight Member States of the European Community or candidate countries
e) be mandated by their members, through a Management Board or other
administrative forum, to be responsible for the activities of the
network;
f) without prejudice to point d), be inclusive, continually open to the
membership of new national or European organisations;
g) not have general objectives which, directly or indirectly, conflict
with the policies of the Union or are linked with an unsuitable image;
Selection Criteria
To qualify for support for their running costs, European-level networks
must:
a) have a strong track record of competence and experience in the fight
against Roma discrimination;
b) have their own administrative and financial management structure;
c) have financial resources which are not exclusively made up of
subsidies and grants from the European institutions.
Award Criteria
The beneficiaries will be selected on the basis of the best match to the
following criteria:
a) the degree to which the work programme contributes to the fight
against Roma discrimination (20%);
b) the degree of participation of Roma people in the design and
implementation of each of the foreseen activities (20%);
c) the degree of co-operation which should be effective and balanced
between the organisation and its members with regard to: planning of
activities, carrying out of activities, regular exchange of information
and financial participation (20%);
d) the extent to which the organisation is representative within the
movement concerned (5%); the degree to which the work programme includes
adequate means for evaluating the organisation's activities (15%);
e) a sound cost-efficiency ratio (15%);
f) the degree of financial feasibility of the annual programme of
activities by means of a realistic, reasonable and balanced budget (5%)
Financing
The budget for this core funding support will be approximately � 120.000
per year. The Community financial contribution would not exceed 90% of
the total eligible costs.Contributions in kind will not be accepted. The
Community contribution would be towards costs inherent in carrying out
the activities of the organisation's annual work programme.
Timing
Call for proposal to be published in the course of the first semester
2005 with a deadline for submitting applications of 12 weeks after the
date of publication of the call. There will be only one deadline for the
submission of applications. The call will appear on the Website of the
European Commission
II. Restricted calls for proposals targeted only at national authorities
mandated to implement the Community Action programme to combat
discrimination for the purpose of organising national events, raising
awareness of the discrimination issues This call is targeted at public
authorities of Member States and candidate countries who have been
mandated to implement the Community Action Programme to combat
discrimination. National authorities are often best placed to identify
the communication needs in their state and the key actors who should be
targeted by awareness-raising activities.
The awareness-raising activities must be linked to the national action
plans developed by the national working groups that coordinate the
European Information Campaign "For Diversity-Against Discrimination".
Eligible activities concern the
� Organisation of a national day/week on diversity and equality issues
� Organisation of a conference/seminar/other awareness-raising activity
concerning Directives 2000/43/EC and 2000/78/EC and their transposition
into national law.
� Organisation of a conference/seminar/other awareness-raising activity
concerning the development of networking in the framework of the
Community Action Programme to combat discrimination
� National follow-up to the training seminars for judges and legal
practitioners (Academy of European Law, Trier)
� Other activities that aim to bring a European dimension to national or
regional awareness-raising events on anti-discrimination legislation and
policy.
Exclusion and eligibility criteria
Initiatives are in principle implemented by the Member States. To be
eligible the proposed initiative must be
a) endorsed by the Member of the Programme Committee of the relevant
Member State
b) coherent with the priorities of the European Information Campaign
"For Diversity-against Discrimination"
If a Member State mandates an organisation to implement the proposed
activity, the exclusion criteria mentioned in articles 93 and 94 of the
Financial Regulation (Council Regulation n� 1605/2002 of 25 June 2002 �
JO L248 of 16/9/2002) applies. In this context the organisation is
required to enclose a sworn statement according to which they declare
not to fall under one of the situations listed in these articles of the
Financial Regulation (included in the application form). Organisations
must also
c) have their own legal status and be registered in accordance with the
domestic legislation of the Member State at the time of the submission
of the financial request;
d) be non-profit organisations;
e) have a written mandate from the Member State to assume responsibility
for the implementation of the activities
f) not have general objectives which, directly or indirectly, conflict
with the policies of the Union or are linked with an unsuitable image;
Selection criteria
Organisations that are mandated by a Member State to implement an
activity must
a) have a strong track record of competence and experience in the fight
against discrimination;
b) have their own administrative and financial management structure;
c) have financial resources which are not exclusively made up of
subsidies and grants from the European institutions.
Award Criteria
Applications will be assessed on the basis of the following criteria:
a) Relevance of the activities to the objectives of the Community Action
Programme to combat discrimination (20%)
b) Quality and coherence of the methodology for developing and
implementing the activities (20%)
c) Coherence between the activities proposed and the European
Information Campaign "For Diversity-Against Discrimination" (20%)
d) Identification of the target audience and definition of a clear
strategy for communicating effectively with that audience 10%)
e) European dimension and added value of European Community funding
(10%)
f) the degree of financial feasibility of the activities by means of a
realistic, reasonable and balanced budget (5%)
Financing
An amount of �100,000 per activity will, in principle, be set aside.
Global budget available is approximately 2.500.000�. The Community
financial contribution would not exceed 80% of the total eligible costs.
Timing
A call for proposals will be issued in the first semester of 2005. The
deadline for submitting applications is 12 weeks after the date of
publication. Only one deadline is foreseen.
III. Spontaneous subsidies
Objectives
The Community will also consider spontaneous requests for subsidies for
the support of three presidential conferences (Luxemburg and United
Kingdom) in 2005 of which
� one will be specifically dedicated to evolutions in the field of
disability, on a national and community level
� two concern all the grounds of discrimination of Article 13 of the
Treaty
Financing
These subsidies are awarded by the Commission as a College in
application of Article 168/1c ME. The indicative amount of financing is
350.000� for the conference specifically dedicated to disability and
300.000� for the other conferences. Total budget available for these
activities is 950.000�