Jadranje po nemirnih vodah

D - The EU programmes for NGOs in Slovenia

D - 1 Profile

Phare Small Projects Programme (SPP)
The SPP supports projects that raise awareness on European integration and EU accession issues and increase the visibility of the European Union in Slovenia.
Project proposals should address priority areas in the preparation of Slovenia's accession to the European Union. The projects should promote harmonisation of legislation, the effective implementation of the EU legislation and the awareness raising on EU policies.
Priority sectors for SPP support include:

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  the internal market (including data protection, product safety, recognition of professional qualifications, quality standards/certificates;
  
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  intellectual property and co-ordination of social security systems);
  
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  justice and home affairs (In particular issues related to: reform of the judiciary and the legal system, court backlogs, legal co-operation in penal law, the fight against trafficking in drugs and human beings and the prevention of money laundering);
  
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  agriculture and rural development (information on the Common Agricultural Policy, animal welfare and the SAPARD programme);
  
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  regional policy;
  
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  European Monetary Union (EMU) and
  
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  social policy and employment.
  

Grants can vary between $10,000 and $50,000. The level of co-financing by the applicant organisations should be 50% or more. Budget: 150.000 euros.

Phare Access Programme
The aim of the Access Programme, is to strengthen the institutional capacity of non-governmental (NGO) and non-profit organisations (NPO) and to support the activities related to the adoption and the implementation of

aquis communautaire in the following fields:

Environment protection: nature protection, waste management, industrial risk management, chemical risk management, genetically modified organisms, air pollution.
Socio-economic development: social dialogue to support social partner capacity building, consumer protection, NGO/NPO management and industrial development.
It will also support activities in the social sector that will enable social reintegration and/or to promote sustainable health and social support for marginalised groups of the population, e.g. minority groups, disabled, elderly, homeless, homeless and abused children, illiterate, unemployed, victims of addiction, patients of AIDS, etc.
Grants are available for two types of projects - Macro and Micro projects - as well as for the Networking Facility:

Macro projects, Micro projects, Networking Facility

Up to $100,000

Two partners minimum from different countries, with the applicant being the Slovene organisation 90% co-financing if all partners are from candidate countries, 80% if one partner from the EU, duration: 6-18 months

Up to $50,000

No partners necessary, 80% co-financing, duration: 6-12 months

Enable NGOs/NPOs in Slovenia to participate in multinational activities, meetings and conferences organised by NGOs/NPOs in the EU Member States and other candidate countries. Budget available for projects run in 2000: 325.000 euros.
The European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights
Aims at supporting projects which promote human rights, the rule of law and strengthen civil society. Budget

available for projects running in 2001: 70.000 euros.

D - 2 Answers to the most frequent questions from Slovene NGOs

Payments upon Contracts? - 80% ADVANCE at the time of contract signature, and 20% (6 months later not 12 as some projects are only 6 months long whereas others may be 12 or 18 months long)
Could Croatia be a partner (Mladina - Tomaz Sevnik)
Could Switzerland be a partner - NO
Do all the activities have to take place in Slovenia - YES but could a seminar be organised in Trieste if a partner is Italian? - NO.
Could a matching contribution be paid out of Ministries funds? - don't see why not? - but it is better when the ministry is contributing in financial resources that it is stated under the budget itemin EURO.
how to calculate daily allowance -. Up to 12h and less than 200km - can it be less?
Could we apply for two projects within Access - NO! You can only be once as applicant and once as partner! But may be able to apply once for Access and once for SPP - have to state it in the required Annexes!
Is the VAT covered by the grant? NO - Phare grants cannot cover the VAT costs. It should be considered in the application as the financial contribution of the organisation.
Can we apply for the Networking Facility for an activity within the UN? Yes, if the activity is connected with the aim of the programme and take place in the EU.
Can Regional Development Agencies apply, as non-profit private firms? It is depending on its statute (decision-making in the organisation).

D - 3 Consequences of EU grants' principles on the Slovene NGO sector

Consortia

The small size of the Slovene NGOs is and will represent a disadvantage towards getting EU grants. The Slovene NGOs will have to form consortia, wether by areas of activities or complementary activities, in order to be able to implement wider project, including higher expected results. Any step towards cooperation, trust and transfer of know-how between sister-organisation will constitute a step towards EU grants.

Furthermore and given the lack of sufficient information given to NGOs on complicated procedures (see B), form consortia to ameliorate administrative capacities of NGOs involved would be an asset. A consortium of NGOs is better able to hire the service of an expert to trace EU grants in a given area, find its way through procedures and write proper project proposals.
Lobbying at the European level

Lobby with similar organisations in the Member States of the EU will first give to Slovene NGOs an opportunity of transfer of know-how, possibilities to access community programmes not yet open to Slovenia as partners. Furthermore, once Slovenia a Member State, it will give access for such NGOs acting at the European level to major EU grant programmes specifically designed for NGOs. For example, in the case of the "Community action programme promoting NGOs primarily active in the field of environmental protection", the financial contributions to NGOs can as well cover the costs of their annual work programme.

Information channels

If establishing consortia by sector, it would be best that a lead organisation in the consortium centralise information on EU grants in this sector and provide it to the other members. In any case, after the accession of Slovenia to EU, the best channel of information would be the Department of European Affairs of the government, as the government will be the one to decide in what Community programme Slovenia is participating.

Complementary information:

NEW CALL FOR PROPOSALS

European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights issued by the European Commission

Eligibility: NGOS

Deadline for applications: Monday 19 March 2001 at 16h

Parts of the programme open for Slovenia:

Support for education, training, awareness-raising in the area of human rights

Support for measures to combat racism and xenophobia and to protect minorities and indigenous peoples.
Information can be found on http://europa.eu.int/comm/scr/tender/index_en.htm

Reference Documents:

The Commission and the Non-Governmental Organisations: Building a Stronger Partnership

(http://europa.eu.int/comm/secretariat_general/sgc/ong/en/communication.pdf)

Vademecum on Grant Management (http://europa.eu.int/comm/secretariat_general/sgc/info_subv/vm_gm.htm)