In 2015 eight beneficiaries from Croatia were successful in the calls for proposals within the Europe for Citizens Programme, by winning financial support in the value of almost 4 million HRK in a fierce competition with applicants from 32 participating countries.
The project coordinators are three associations (The Jewish Film Festival Zagreb, Documenta- Center for Dealing with the Past, the Europe House- Slavonski Brod), four municipalities (Vidovec, Beretinec, Cestica and Podgora) and the town of Vodnjan. In relation to the total grant amount withdrawn by the beneficiaries in Croatia over the last year, this presents a significant increase by 37%. Given the fact that 53 organizations, towns and municipalities from Croatia have been included as partners on the projects of the total value estimated at 24,810,450,00 HRK, the value of the projects being implemented is significantly higher.
The projects will be implemented during 2015 and 2016 and, in addition to the Croatian beneficiaries, representatives from 14 EU member countries and candidate countries will be participating. The beneficiaries from Croatia will organize festivals, summer schools, volunteer and children camps with the aim of advocating a multicultural dialogue and consolidation of tolerance. Moreover, the common European values will be strengthened in the project activities via facing the past and remembering victims of the totalitarian regimes, with the purpose of achieving sustainable peace. The projects will also deal with the future of the European Union, encourage active European citizenship, common European identity, social entrepreneurship and self-employment, development of rural areas. They will also question and awaken the challenges of persons with disabilities and the elderly, as well as discuss the differences among the Union citizens and Euroscepticism.
The Europe for Citizens Programme has been available in Croatia since 2008, and the total of 84 projects of non-profit organizations and local and regional self-government units have been implemented since then. The purpose of this Programme is to encourage the development of active European citizenship by providing financial support to the organizations that work on strengthening the feeling of European identity and the European Union affiliation through networking and exchange of knowledge, experiences, traditions and visions of progress. The Croatian Government Office for Cooperation with NGOs has been appointed as the coordinator of the Programme implementation in Croatia, and it functions as a Contact Point for the Europe for Citizens Programme.
The list of the Croatian projects financed from the Europe for Citizens Programme in 2015 can be found
here.
Page
