These comprise the MEDA Democracy Programme and the Micro Action Programme. The MEDA Democracy Programme is an initiative of the European Parliament. The Democracy Programme does not allocate quota to specific countries, but is open for projects in the whole Mediterranean region. No retro-active funding. The opinion of the Commission Delegation in the beneficiary country is of great importance.
Programmes relate to seminars, conferences, training programmes etc.
The organisations that are eligible for funding under this heading include such diverse actors as the media, local government structures, youth groups, local as well as EU NGOs, research institutes, churches and private firms. Contracts are for 200,000 ECU maximum. The MPCs themselves have on several occasions complained of the complexity of the MED procedures. The future of the suspended decentralised cooperation programmes is at present the subject of discussions between the European Parliament and the Commission. Over the period of 1990-95 it funded over 80 billion ECU in the EU Member States.