Programming Period 2014-2020

The Europe for Citizens Program is one of the EU programs that provides financial support for the projects promoting active European citizenship. The purpose of this Program is to improve civil participation in the European integration process through discussions and exchange of opinions on EU, strengthen the European identity, as well as promote intercultural dialogue and understanding among the European citizens. The estimated resources for the programming period 2014-2020 amount to 186,5 million euros.
The countries participating in this Program:

28 EU member countries;
the Program is also open to the following categories of countries, provided that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Commission:

a) accessing countries, candidate countries and potential candidate countries (Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania and Macedonia), in line with general principles and general provisions and terms for the participation of these countries in the Union programs determined by the relevant framework agreements, decisions of the Council on accession or similar agreements;
b) EFTA countries that are contracting parties of the Agreement on the European Economic Area (EEA), in line with the provisions of this Agreement.

IMPORTANT NOTE*:
If one of these countries applies as a project beneficiary before signing a Memorandum of Understanding, the decision on possible financing will be made only after signing the Memorandum.
- If these countries are project partners, their participation will be taken into account at the final payment only under the condition that Memorandums of Understanding have been signed. The applicants who intend to include organizations from these countries as partners need to fulfil the eligibility criteria related to the number of partners in case that Memorandums have not been signed.
The Memorandum of Understanding for the period 2014-2020 was signed by Serbia, Montenegro and Ex-Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania are still in the process of signing.

The general objectives of the Program:

to contribute to better understanding of the Union, its history and diversity,
to promote the European citizenship and improve civil and democratic participation on the
Union level.

The specific objectives of the Program:

raising awareness of remembrance, common history and values, as well as the Union objective, which promote peace, its values and benefit for its people by encouraging discussions, pondering and development of networks,
encouraging democratic and civil participation at the Union level by developing civil understanding of the Union policy-making procedure, and promoting civil and intercultural engagement and volunteering at the Union level.
The Executive Agency determines the annual priorities for each sub-program, and the projects will also be evaluated according to their compliance to the annual priorities and goals.

The detailed and elaborated priorities for the period 2016-2020 to the fulfillment of which project proposals should directly contribute

General features of the Europe for Citizens Program:

equal access to the Program
transnationality and local dimension
intercultural dialogue
volunteering – an expression of active European citizenship.

The structure of the Europe for Citizens Program in the programming period 2014-2020 contains 2 thematic areas:
Strand 1 – European remembrance: Raising awareness of remembrance, common history and values, and the Union objective
Strand 2 – Democratic engagement and civic participation: Encouraging democratic and civil participation of the citizens at the Union level. This strand includes the following measures: Town Twinning, Networks of Towns and Civil Society Projects.
Types of grants:
Action grants – given to the projects (from both strands), i.e. for activities of limited lifetime during which the proposed activities are being implemented.
Operational grants – cover the costs of regular management of the usual and permanent projects of a certain organization.

Timetable of deadlines for submitting project proposals in the period until 2020

ACTION GRANTS
Strand 1- European remembrance
Submission deadlines		Eligibility period: projects must start between
March 1st		August 1^st in the year of the deadline and January 31^st in the year after the end of the deadline

Strand 2- Democratic engagement and civil participation
Measure	Submission deadlines	Eligibility period: projects must start between
1. Town Twinning
	March 1st	July 1^st in the year of the deadline and March 31^st in the year after the end of the deadline
	September 1st	January 1^st and September 1^st in the year after the end of the deadline
2. Networks of Towns
	March 1st	July 1^st and December 31^st of the year of the deadline
	September 1st	January 1^st and May 30^th in the year after the end of the deadline
3. Civil Society Projects
	March 1st	August 1^st in the year of the deadline and January 31^st in the year after the end of the deadline

*The applications must be submitted before 12 a.m. (CET) of the last date for the submission. If the submission deadline ends at the weekend, the first working day after the weekend should be considered as the deadline.