Europe for Citizens

Overview

Through this programme, citizens have the opportunity to be involved in transnational exchanges and cooperation activities, contributing to developing a sense of belonging to common European ideals and encouraging the process of European integration.

The general objectives of the Europe for citizens Programme are to contribute to:

• giving citizens the opportunity to interact and participate in constructing an ever closerEurope, which is democratic and world-oriented, united in and enriched through itscultural diversity, thus developing citizenship of the European Union;
• developing a sense of European identity, based on common values, history and culture;
• fostering a sense of ownership of the European Union among its citizens;
• enhancing tolerance and mutual understanding between European citizens respecting and promoting cultural and linguistic diversity, while contributing to intercultural dialogue.

The Programme has the following specific objectives, which shall be implemented on a transnational basis:

• bringing together people from local communities across Europe to share and exchange experiences, opinions and values, to learn from history and to build for the future;
• fostering action, debate and reflection related to European citizenship and democracy, shared values, common history and culture through cooperation within civil society
  organisations at European level;
• bringing Europe closer to its citizens by promoting Europe's values and achievements, while preserving the memory of its past;
• encouraging interaction between citizens and civil society organisations from all participating countries, contributing to intercultural dialogue and bringing to the fore both Europe's diversity and unity, with particular attention to activities aimed at developing closer ties between citizens from Member States of the European Union as constituted on 30 April 2004 and those from Member States which have acceded since that date.

It supports the following types of actions:

Active Citizens for Europe (Action 1)

Measure 1 - Town Twinning
This measure is aimed at activities that involve or promote direct exchanges between European citizens through their participation in town-twining activities.

• Measure 1.1 -Town twinning - citizens meetings
  A project must involve municipalities from at least 2 participating countries, of which at least one is an EU Member State. The project must have a minimum of 25 international participants coming from the invited municipalities, with at least 5 participants from each invited municipality. The maximum duration of the meeting is 21 days. The maximum grant is €22,000 per project. A maximum of €40,000 per project can apply if at least 10 towns participate in the project. The minimum grant is €2,500.
• Measure 1.2 - Network of Twinned Towns
  This measure supports the development of networks created on the basis of town twinning links. A project must foresee at least 3 events. It must involve municipalities from at least 4 participating countries, of which at least one is an EU Member State. The project must have a minimum of 30 international participants coming from the invited municipalities. The maximum project duration is 24 months; the maximum duration of each event is 21 days. Maximum grant is €150,000 with a minimum of €10,000.

Measure 2 - Citizens Projects & Support Measures

• Measure 2.1 - Citizens Projects
  This measure addresses a major challenge of how to bridge the gap between citizens and the EU. It aims at exploring original and innovative methodologies capable of encouraging citizens' participation and stimulating the dialogue between European citizens and the institutions of the EU.
  A project must involve at least 5 participating countries, of which at least one is an EU Member State. A project must involve at least 200 participants with a maximum duration of 12 months. The grant awarded may not exceed 60 % of the total amount of the project's eligible costs and the minimum grant will be €100 000. with a maximum of €250,000.
• Measure 2.2 - Support Measures
  This measure is a tool to develop the quality of projects submitted within Action 1 ‘Active Citizens for Europe'. It supports the exchange of experiences, expertise and good practice, as well as activities which may lead to the establishment of long-lasting partnerships and networks.
  A project must involve at least 2 participating countries, of which at least one is an EU Member State. The maximum is 12 months. At least 2 events per project have to be foreseen. The grant may not exceed a maximum rate of 80 % of eligible costs of the action concerned with a minimum grant of €30,000 and a maximum of €100,000.

Action 2 - Active Civil Society in Europe

• Measure 3 - Support for projects initiated by civil society organisations
  The aim of this measure is to support concrete projects promoted by civil society organisations belonging to different participating countries. These projects should raise awareness on matters of European interest and contribute to foster mutual understanding on different cultures and to identify common values through cooperation at European level. A project must involve at least 2 participating countries, of which at least one is an EU Member State. The maximum duration of projects is 12 months and the grant can be calculated following two different methods :
  (a) budget based on flat rates for ‘event projects';
  (b) budget based on real costs for ‘production and realisation projects':
  The grant requested in that case may not exceed 60 % of the eligible costs of the action concerned with a maximum grant of €55,000 and a minimum of €10,000.

Action 4 - Active European Remembrance

The aim of projects supported under this action is to keep alive the memory of the victims of Nazism and Stalinism and to improve the knowledge and understanding of present and future generations about what took place in the camps and other places of mass-civilian extermination, and why. The eligibility and grant is the same as the previous measure.

*Extra Call

Action 1 Measure 1.6 - The Promotion of Innovative actions

The global purpose of this call is to test and develop innovative transnational exchange schemes with a view to building long-term partnerships between civil society organisations operating in different participating countries in the area of the ‘Europe for citizens’ programme. Projects funded under this call must contribute to the following objectives :

• To develop and test new forms of transnational mobility between civil society organisations;
• To promote the concept of transnational mentoring between civil society organisations to support innovative project methodologies in relation to transnational mobility and mentoring between civil society organisations.

Projects need to focus on helping organisations develop their capacity to actively promote one or more of the themes of the Europe for Citizens programme:

• The future of the EU and its basic values;
• Active European citizenship and participation in democracy in Europe;
• Intercultural dialogue;
• People’s well being in Europe in terms of employment, social cohesion and sustainable development;
• The impact of EU policies on societies.

The types of activities supported by this call for proposals should promote transnational mobility between
the staff and/or volunteers, the voluntary officers and board members of the partner organisation(s). This
could include:

• Mentoring on a one-to-one basis;
• Mentoring of groups of staff/volunteers;
• Exchanges of staff between partner organisations.

Joint conferences, workshops, and meetings between the partner organisations may only be supported if
they are in direct support of the above points Project activities should seek to develop and apply innovative methodologies to mentoring and exchanges of staff; for example blended mentoring (i.e. on-site and online activities).

Applications are welcome from not for profit civil society organisations. Projects need to involve organisations from at least two eligible countries, of which one must be a Member State. The other eligible countries are Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Albania.

Projects must start between 1 January and 31 March 2012 and can last up to 12 months.

The total budget is in the order of €1.1 million and grants can be for between €75,000 and €150,000 and cover up to 80% of eligible costs.

How to Apply

Obtain full guidelines and application forms from the Citizenship website