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CONSUMER POLICY

Call for proposals 2004

(2004/C 113/01)

1.   Introduction

This document is a call for proposals for specific projects in connection with the implementation of Article 7(4) (Action 18) of Decision No 20/2004/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 December 2003 establishing a general framework for financing Community actions in support of consumer policy for the years 2004 to 2007 (1). The call for proposals is open to projects from any of the 25 Member States of the European Union, the EFTA/EEA countries and Bulgaria and Romania, provided, in the case of the latter two, that all the conditions laid down in the bilateral agreements with Bulgaria and Romania have been met.

Any legal person or association of legal persons that acts independently of industry or commerce and wishes to submit proposals for specific projects in the subject areas described under point 4 of this call is invited to read carefully this document, the application form and the explanatory vade mecum, all of which are available at the following internet address:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/consumers/tenders/information/grants/application_en.htm

2.   Objectives

The consumer policy strategy for the period 2002 to 2006 contains three fundamental objectives:

These three objectives seek to integrate consumer problems into all the other Community policies, to make sure consumers derive maximum advantage from the single market and to prepare the European Union for enlargement.

This call for proposals sets out the general objectives of the consumer policy strategy, inviting proposals for specific projects in the subject areas specified at point 4 and offering 75 % co-financing for projects that involve consumer organissations from the new Member States, subject to the conditions specified at point 3.

3.   Arrangements for Community funding

4.   Subject areas

The European Commission invites proposals for projects addressing the subject areas described below.

The projects proposed for each subject area must be compatible with the objectives and priorities set by the consumer policy strategy for the period 2002 to 2006 (2). The project results must be disseminated as widely as possible.

Competition

Objective: to integrate consumer interests into all the other Community policies.

If consumers are to be the ultimate beneficiaries of the competition policy, there is a need to examine the extent to which more account could be taken of their legitimate interests. To this end, the various Commission services concerned are in the process of setting up the necessary instruments in order to help ensure consumer interests are taken into account in the decisions to be taken. The Commission has also begun working on this subject in close cooperation with the relevant public authorities in the Member States.

If the objective is to be fully attained, consumer organisations also need to be tangibly involved in the implementation of the Community competition rules and need to develop lasting capacities allowing them to be genuine representatives of consumer interests.

Themes:

Community financing:

Duration of projects: up to 36 months

Protection of consumers' economic interests

Objective: to appraise the effective application of consumer protection rules and identify points that could be improved with a view to the revision of the existing EU legislation.

The consumer policy strategy for the period 2002 to 2006 provides for an examination of the existing Community legislation regarding the protection of consumers' economic interests. Alongside the analysis of the legal aspects, which will be performed by the relevant Commission services, the consumer organisations can help provide a clearer picture of the effective application of the acquis communautaire by analysing consumers' personal experiences.

The directives which the revision of the acquis will concern are the following:

Theme:

A project may address only one Directive at a time.

In the case of each of the first seven Directives listed above, the project must collect, analyse and compare the following data:

In the case of the Directive on injunctions, the project must collect, analyse and compare cases where injunctions have been applied and identify any difficulties that have been encountered in applying them.

Community financing:

Duration of projects: up to 24 months

General product safety

objective: to help speed up the effective application of the acquis communautaire in the new Member States, and more particularly of Directive No 2001/95/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 3 December 2001 on general product safety.

Theme:

Identification at national level of shortcomings in the application of legislation, chiefly by identifying very specifically the practical problems faced by consumers. Following this, launching of campaigns to raise awareness among the various stakeholders (the relevant professionals, the authorities in charge of monitoring application of the legislation) and informing consumers in order to improve their vigilance.

Community financing:

75 %, under the conditions specified in Chapter 3.2(a).

Duration of projects: up to 24 months

Safety of services

Objective: to contribute towards the adoption of a high level of protection for consumers.

There is no general Community-wide legal framework covering the safety of services offered to consumers. The Council and the European Parliament have asked the Commission to identify the needs, possibilities and priorities for Community action in the field of safety of services and, if applicable, to submit proposals.

On the ground, the various organisations concerned, especially the consumer organisations, have an essential role to play in detecting the level of safety offered to consumers, informing consumers of any risks and introducing practical risk assessment tools.

Themes:

Community financing:

Duration of projects: up to 36 months

Services of general interest

Objective: to integrate consumer interests into other Community policies.

The policy of liberalisation of services of general interest is intended to improve the functioning of these services, for the benefit of consumers and of all the economic operators.

In order to ensure that the market in services of general interest functions smoothly, the liberalisation directives have generally provided for the setting up of national regulatory authorities (NRAs) for markets. This has been the case for telecommunications, postal services, air transport, electricity and gas.

The Green Paper of May 2003 on services of general interest underlines the importance of the NRAs for consumers: ‘Particularly important from a consumer or user perspective is the role regulators often play in developing and implementing binding standards of security and quality of service. These are important in terms of meeting expectations with regard, inter alia, to access choice, transparency (including on price), affordability, quality, safety, security and reliability. Adequate redress mechanisms for consumers and users are essential where operators fail to meet standards in this respect.’

The NRAs also have an important role to play in ensuring the viability of the principle of universal service, which embraces aspects such as access, quality and affordability.

In the area of services of general interest, the consumer policy strategy for the period 2002 to 2006 aims to involve consumer organisations in monitoring and assessing the results of the policy on services of general interest. It is therefore essential that the NRAs take full account of the consumer associations in their activities.

Theme:

Taking into account of consumer interests by the NRAs

In one or more of the following sectors: gas, electricity, postal services, telecommunications, air transport, the contractor should:

Community financing:

Duration of projects: up to 24 months

5.   Evaluation criteria

To be deemed admissible, project proposals must meet all the criteria set out below (eligibility, selection and award criteria).

In defining the selection and award criteria the Commission shall be assisted by an advisory committee composed of representatives of the Member States (see Article 15 of Decision No 20/2004/EC).

Eligibility criteria

Article 7(4) of Decision No 20/2004/EC stipulates that the financial contributions for action 18 may be awarded to any legal person or association of legal persons, including appropriate independent public bodies and regional consumer organisations, that acts independently of industry and commerce and is actually responsible for the implementation of the projects.

Point 3 of this call for proposals specifies, for each subject area, the types of organisations which will be given priority.

To be eligible, the applicant organisation must not be in any of the situations of exclusion listed in Articles 93 and 94 of the Financial Regulation.

As proof of eligibility, the applicant must furnish, in support of his application, a copy of his organisation's articles of association, a copy of the organisation's statutory registration certificate and an attestation of non-exclusion.

Selection criteria

The selection criteria are used to (a) evaluate the applicant organisation's financial and operational capacity to complete the proposed action and (b) verify that the applicant has stable financial resources that will be adequate to guarantee the pursuance of the activities throughout the duration of the project.

The applicant must furnish information on the organisation's qualifications and professional experience, notably in the form of its most recent activity report, the curriculum vitae of the project manager and, if applicable, references to the organisation's participation in actions financed by the European Commission, agreements or contracts concluded with other international organisations or Member States.

As evidence of his financial capacity, the applicant must provide the following:

Award criteria

After applying the selection criteria, the Commission will make its selection on the basis of two types of criteria which will enable it to verify the quality of the proposed activity and the quality of the application.

To be eligible for selection, projects must comply with the two criteria relating to the quality of the activity and must achieve a total score of at least 70 % in the assessment of the quality of the application.

Quality of the proposed activity

The aim here is to assess the value of the project.

The project must:

Quality of the application

The aim here is to assess the structure of the project.

Each criterion must be met and the minimum score is at least 50 % of the points in each case.

The project must:

For projects from consumer organisations in the new Member States aimed at speeding up the effective application of the acquis communautaire in the area of product safety in the new Member States, only the following award criteria need be met:

6.   Submission of applications

The application dossier must include:

The budget proposed must include, if applicable, the costs of producing English or French translations of the reports required to be submitted to the Commission, i.e. the interim report during the course of the project and the final report upon completion.

Only fully complete application dossiers will be considered.

The complete application dossier may be drafted in any one of the 20 official languages of the European Union, with the exception of the summary, which must be in either English or French.

Applicants intending to submit more than one project proposal must complete and submit a separate application dossier for each.

The complete application dossier must be sent by post in triplicate to the following address:

Applications must be postmarked on or before 13 July 2004. Proposals sent by express courier service or delivered by hand must arrive by 17.00 Brussels time on 13 July 2004 at the latest.

The completed application form and the summary must also be submitted in Word format, either by e-mail to the following address: sanco.unit.b1@cec.eu.int, or on floppy disk or CD-ROM to the postal address specified above, the same deadlines applying.

7.   Selection and approval

After receiving the specific project proposals the Commission will have three months in which to select the projects which are to receive financial support based on the assessment criteria and conditions specified in this notice. The Commission decision will lead to the conclusion of a contract with the beneficiary responsible for implementing the project, covering the rights and obligations of the contracting parties. The project may begin as soon as the contract has been signed.

Applicants will be informed individually in writing of the decision(s) pertaining to their application(s).

The Commission will publish in the Official Journal of the European Union a list of the beneficiaries and projects funded under this call for proposals, together with an indication of the amount of funding awarded.

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(1)OJ L 5, 9.1.2004, p. 1.

(2)OJ C 102, 2.4.2002.

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