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CALL FOR PROPOSALS — EAC/18/06

Promotion of active European Citizenship

Pilot Projects/Citizens' Projects 2006

(2006/C 90/09)

1.   OBJECTIVES — PROJECT CATEGORIES

The general objectives of this call for proposals are to:

The call for proposals is aimed at supporting projects in the following two categories:

Category 1:   Citizens' panels

The specific objective of citizen's panels is to provide a model for stimulating active interaction between citizens of the EU, supporting the formulation of their opinions concerning the European integration process and encouraging dialogue between European citizens and the institutions of the EU.

Citizens' panels should:

Category 2:   Capacity building for active European citizenship

The specific objective is to encourage capacity building with regard to active European citizenship and to empower a group of active European citizens, such as NGO leaders, municipal representatives, youth workers, community representatives, trade union leaders and journalists, to transmit their commitment to active European citizenship.

They should benefit from an innovative and inter-active form of training on the issues of European identity, European citizenship and citizens' participation. Training events must involve participants from a wide spectrum of organisations.

Capacity building projects should:

2.   ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

Applications which comply with the following eligibility criteria will be subject of an in-depth evaluation.

a)   Eligible applicants

The project must be carried out by the applicant (co-ordinator) in co-operation with eligible partner organisations (co-beneficiaries).

To be eligible for a grant, the applicant (co-ordinator) must satisfy the following requirements:

The co-ordinator is the organisation responsible for submitting the project proposal and must be formally mandated by the project partners (co-beneficiaries) to represent them and to sign any eventual grant agreement with the European Commission The co-ordinator is responsible for the design and implementation of the proposed project and is considered as the primary beneficiary of any subsequent grant award.

The co-ordinator has to demonstrate its capacity of co-operation with project partners (co-beneficiaries) and give evidence of past successful co-operation with at least two of them.

The partner organisations (co-beneficiaries) must fulfil the eligibility criteria as defined in section 2 of the call for proposals and must be from at least 4 other eligible countries than the country of the co-ordinator.

b)   Eligible countries

The 25 Member States of the European Union (Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom).

3.   BUDGET AND PROJECT DURATION

The total amount available for the co-financing of projects within this call for proposals will be EUR 500 000.

The grant awarded may not exceed 50 % of the total amount of the project's eligible costs as specified in the detailed budget estimate.

The minimum grant will be EUR 50 000.

The maximum grant will be EUR 150 000.

This call covers projects starting between 1.10.2006 and 31.12.2006.

All projects must end by 31.8.2007.

The maximum duration of a project is 11 months.

4.   DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

Applications must be sent at the latest by 31.5.2006.

5.   FURTHER INFORMATION

The full text of the call for proposals as well as the application forms and enclosures is available on the following website:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/dgs/education_culture/activecitizenship/index_en.htm

Applications must comply with the requirements set out in the full text of the call and be submitted using the forms provided.

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(1)  Based on the co-ordinators and partners registered place of business or its place of main activity.

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