Programm: Europe for Citizens

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Programme	Europe for Citizens
Type of Fund	Action programme
Description of programme "Europe for Citizens"	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.
Link	Link to Programme
Thematic Focus	Education, Development Cooperation, European Citizenship, History, Art and Culture
Macro-Region	Danube Region, Adriatic and Ionian Region, Alpine Region, Baltic Sea Region
Origin of Applicant of programme Europe for Citizens	EU Member States Albania / Shqipëria Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia / поранешна југословенска Република Македонија Montenegro / Crna Gora/Црна Гора Serbia / Сpбија
Project Partner	Yes
Financial details	As an indication, the Regulation establishing the Programme provided that the overall breakdown between the different actions for the whole Programme period 2014 - 2020 should be as follows: Strand 1 -European remembrance: approximately 20% Strand 2 - Democratic engagement and civic participation: approximately 60% Horizontal Action - Valorisation: approximately 10% The grant is calculated on the basis of Lump sum financing system fixed per "tranches". For Town Twinning, the lump sum is based only on the number of participants invited, i.e. international participants sent by partners from countries eligible for the programme, other than the country hosting the twinning. For the other strands/measures, 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.
Contact Details	The European Commission has delegated the responsibility for tasks related to the implementation of the Programme to the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency. EACEA - Unit C1 Europe For Citizens Avenue du Bourget, 1 (BOUR 01/04A) B-1049 Brussels - Belgium Fax:+32 2 296 23 89 Strand 1. - European remembrance: eacea-c1-remembrance@ec.europa.eu Strand 2. - Democratic engagement and civic participation: eacea-c1-civilsociety@ec.europa.eu (Civil society projects) eacea-c1@ec.europa.eu (Town twinning & Networks of Towns) Operating grants eacea-c1-operatinggrants@ec.europa.eu Europe for Citizens Contact Points in participating countries.

Subprogrammes of Europe for Citizens

Democratic Engagement and Civic Participation

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 – supporting projects bringing together citizens from twinned towns. By mobilising citizens at local and EU levels to debate on concrete issues from the European political agenda, this measure will seek to promote civic participation in the EU policy making process and develop opportunities for societal engagement and volunteering at EU level
Networks of towns – providing funding to municipalities and associations working together on a common theme in a long term perspective, and wishing to develop networks of towns to make their cooperation more sustainable
Civil society projects – supporting projects gathering citizens in activities directly linked to EU policies, providing an opportunity for direct participation in the policy making process. Funded activities may include: promotion of societal engagement and solidarity, gathering of opinions, volunteering.

Specific priorities for "Democratic engagement and civic participation" (Strand 2) for 2016 are:

Understanding and Debating Euroscepticism
Solidarity in times of crisis
Combatting stigmatisation of "immigrants" and building counter narratives to foster intercultural dialogue and mutual understanding
Debate on the future of Europe

European remembrance

This strand supports activities inviting reflection on European cultural diversity and on common values. It aims to finance projects reflecting on causes of totalitarian regimes in Europe's modern history (especially, but not exclusively, Nazism that led to the Holocaust, Fascism, Stalinism and totalitarian communist regimes) and to commemorate the victims of their crimes.

This strand also concerns other defining moments and reference points in recent European history. Preference will be given to projects encouraging tolerance, mutual understanding, intercultural dialogue and reconciliation.

Projects under this strand should:

Include different types of organisations (local authorities, NGOs, research institutes etc.)
Develop different types of activities (research, exhibitions, public debates, non-formal education etc.)
Involve citizens from different target groups
Be implemented on a transnational level, or with a clear European dimension