CERV programme: Citizens’ engagement and participation

There is a nice call for proposals for EU action grants in the field of Citizens’ engagement
and participation
under the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Value Programme (CERV) that will be launched on Thursday, with deadline 10th of February 2022.

The Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values programme provides funding for citizens engagement, equality for all and the implementation of rights and EU values. The programme brings together the former Rights, Equality and Citizenship programme and the former Europe for Citizens programme.

The call provides an opportunity to broadly cover a variety of policy areas, and to contribute to the promotion of EU values, the rule of law, fundamental rights and democracy. While maintaining a bottom-up approach, there will be a specific focus on:

  • the 2024 European Parliament elections, which are central to strengthening and nurturing democracy in the EU, with further efforts needed to promote the participation of citizens in the elections. This priority could also promote EU citizenship rights and contribute to the implementation of the European democracy action plan and the EU Citizenship Report 2020;
  • exploring how the COVID-19 crisis has affected the democratic debate and the enjoyment of fundamental rights;
  • innovative democratic approaches and tools to help citizens make their voices heard and publicly exchange views on all areas of EU action, notably digital tools (‘e-democracy’);
  • countering disinformation and other forms of interference in the democratic debate, empowering citizens to make informed decisions by helping them identify disinformation and promoting media literacy, with journalists’ involvement;
  • engaging citizens and communities in discussions and action related to our climate and environment; there is a growing interest of civil society and associations in discussing climate and green issues and proposing solutions to decision makers.

The available call budget is EUR 17 471 295.
Partnership composition: minimum 3 entities from 3 different eligible countries.

@alberto @nadia @ivan @hugi

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This is very close to what we have been pitching to the EC, it makes total sense for us to participate. I think we have one German partner who might be interested ( German Federal Association for Sustainability) - Do you want to reach out to them? If yes, then its Martin Wittau.

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Also, there is my local political rep in my hometown Stockholm who I might talk to. We are still in a phase where dialogue across political tribes is still possible, but the infected climate around handling of covid, rise of violent drug gangs (not unsimilar to what’s happening in the Netherlands), antivaxxers etc deepening rifts. If it is possible to do something about that then this is something I personally care about. He’s bright but not sure if he has bandwidth as we have elections coming up…

Anyway, I’m interested provided we are focused on Sweden.

Great find. How about our ethnography of utopia? I can think of several partners to involve right off the bat:

  • Messina – ping @giacomo.pinaffo right away
  • The Italian Forum on Inequalities and Diversities (Fabrizio Barca)
  • Possibly La 27eme Région in France (talking to them next week anyway)
  • And @nadia good idea about the German Federal Association for Sustainability

Next step is finding out who knows about this program: type of partners desired, cut of a single project, etc.

No one knows exactly because it’s new. They merged two programmes: EU for Citizens and Rights, Equality and Citizenship programme. It’s under EACEA. I suppose there will be info sessions (my colleague just attended one in Croatia), so best would be to attend those and talk to trusted partners in the meantime.

Unfortunately I can’t take the lead on this…

@ivan can you look into info-sessions here?

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Sure,

I have sent him a mail a couple of days ago to invite him to the NGI event and to inquire about the state of the play of SERAMA.
I will ask him when they answer.

Also Methis and Lionel Ochs could be a good match.

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Today I talked with DemSoc, they are tentatively in. Also likely La 27eme Region.

This is now going to move forward with a webinar. A description is here. Possible dates are 1, 2, 3 and 6 December. @ivan agreed to set up a Doodle for the key people, whom I have already written to.

DemSoc also pointed out to Horizon calls (deadline April 2022) that might be used for the same purposes:

These are the Horizon calls we’re looking into at this moment:
The Future of Democracy and Civic Participation
The Impact of Inequalities on Democracy
Representative Democracy in Flux

And perhaps a bit further removed from your idea,
Education for Democracy
Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and Democracy

@ivan the Croatian Office for Associations as a national contact point for this programme is organizing an info session on 21st of December from 10 to 12h. If you are free I think it would be useful to attend. You need to apply through a google form.

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Apparently it is only for the companies from Croatia -, but I signed up nevertheless. Keeping an eye on others too

The main question is: what is the typical cut?

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Also another question: there is what appears to be a two-tier bullet point list of objectives:

Reading through them, I get the impression that the formatting is a mistake, and all bullet points should be on the same level. Certainly, I cannot see how the indented ones would be sub-items of the item about climate and environment. Can you confirm it?

No, it coincides with a info session right out of the call page:

The registration link is here: https://www.eacea.ec.europa.eu/news-events/events/online-info-session-14-december-2021-call-proposals-citizens-engagement-and-participation-cerv-2022_en

It doesn’t coincide, one is on 14th and another on 21st.

The European one seems better suited for us.

Ah, yes, I had already signed up for that one.
In the Croatian one, the portal requested the Croatian addresses, I signed up nevertheless

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CERV Online info session - 14 December 2021

complete notes here

Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values Programme

Continues on Civil society projects.

Presented by EACEA and DG JUST

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION: 10 February - 5 PM CET

contact points:

Introduction
Gilles Pelayo - EACEA

CERV Programme

Daniela Mormile - DG JUST

CERV Programme is a 7 year programme (2021-2027) based on EU Article 2 (respect of human dignity etc.), which covers 4 objectives = STRANDS::

  1. Union values - budget 690M €
  2. Equality and rights
  3. Daphne (gender based violence) - budget for n.2 and n.3 is 470M €
  4. Citizens engagement and participation - 395M €

Actions in CERV:

  • Training activities, capacity building, mutual learning, workshops, experts’ meetings, conferences
  • Awareness-raising and dissemination activities, media campaigns
  • Analytical activities: studies, research, surveys, evaluations
  • Support for European networks, civil society

CIV 2022 call

Chiara Sorge and Natalia Mereanu - EACEA

Objectives and aims:

  • “promoting citizens’ and representative associations’ participation/contribution to democratic&civic life UE by publicly exchanging their views”
  • support for policy initiatives:
    • EU dem action plan
    • EU citizenship report 2020
    • strenghtening of the application of the Charter of Fundamental Rights in EU

Priorities:
2024 Parliament elections
COVID-19 effects on the deomcratic debate and fund. rights
e-democracy (tools and approaches)
Media literacy, countering disinformation
Engaging citizens on climate and environment

Mandatory gender mainstreaming

KEYWORDS for ACTIVITIES: citizens and participation; gathering opinions - bottom up approach, media literacy,

If starting at a local level - provide a link to the European level.

Main aspects:

  • Consortium: organisations from at least 3 different eligible countries (only EU for the moment)
  • Applicant (consortium leader): a private non-profit organisation with legal ID (civ-soc orgs, edu, cultural or research institutions)
  • Partners: either non-profit as above or public local/regional authorities
  • Acitivities: in eligible countries

definition of a civic society organisation: an organisation whose members serve the general interest of public and intermediate between politics and citizens

Award criteria: relevance (40 ponits), quality (40 points), impact (20 points). Minimum pass score 70

Budget building

  • The projects are imagined as a sum of single events in a given period, each one of them identified as a single work package.
  • LUMP SUMS for single events within the project which include ALL costs needed for the operation (research, engagement, coordination, execution, publishing, project management etc. either for staff or OGS) with the co-funding already embedded.
  • Example: 1 lump sum for 1 event which includes one or more activities = one work package.
  • The sum of the events gives the overall budget of the project.

Events can be ONLINE or IN SITU (or HYBRID). No funding is given for events below 100 (different) participants ONLINE and 25 IN SITU.