Call: Civil society projects

Under the overall aim of bringing the Union closer to citizens the general objectives are:

• to contribute to citizens' understanding of the Union, its history and diversity;
• to foster European citizenship and to improve conditions for civic and democratic participation at Union level.

In line with the general and specific objectives of the Programme, annual priorities are defined by the European Commission after consultation of the Programme Committee. Applicants are encouraged to develop projects in line with the objectives of the Programme and targeting the annual priorities. 

This subprogramme supports:

• Activities covering civic participation, focusing in particular on European Union policies
• Initiatives developing opportunities for mutual understanding, intercultural learning, solidarity, societal engagement and volunteering at EU level

For this purpose, three specific measures are foreseen:

• Town twinning
• Networks of towns
• Civil society projects

This measure aims at supporting projects promoted by transnational partnerships and networks directly involving citizens. Those projects gather citizens from different horizons, in activities directly linked to Union policies, with a view to give them an opportunity to concretely participate in the Union policy-making process in areas related to the objectives and the annual priority themes of the Programme at local and European level.

A Civil Society Project must include at least two of the following three types of activities:

• Promotion of societal engagement and solidarity: activities able to promoting debate/campaigns/actions on the themes of common interest in the larger framework of the rights and responsibilities of the Union citizens and making the link to the European political agenda and policy making process.
• Gathering of opinions: activities aiming at gathering the individual opinions of the citizens on a specific topic to be yearly defined, favouring a bottom up approach (including the use of social networks, webinars, etc.) and media literacy.
• Volunteering: activities promoting solidarity among Union citizens and beyond.

Applicants: non profit organisations, including civil society organisations, educational, cultural or research institutions.

Partners: Public local/regional authorities or non-profit organisations, including civil society organisations, educational, cultural or research institutions, town-twinning committees and networks.

A project must involve organisations from at least 3 eligible countries of which at least one is an EU Member State.

Maximum eligible grant for a project: 150,000 €.

The grant is calculated on the basis of Lump sum financing system fixed per "tranches". 

The lump sum is based on three parameters which constitute the essential elements of all the citizenship actions: the number of participants, the number of countries involved and the number of events developed, with no direct impact on the format of activities. Initially, the lump sum is determined by taking into account the number of participants and the number of countries, then, in the case of several events/activities, the lump sums corresponding to each event/activity are accumulated. 

http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/europe-for-citizens/funding/civil-society-projects-2016_en

https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/europe-for-citizens/contacts_en