Funding programme

Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV) is the EU's funding programme for citizens' engagement and the implementation of EU rights and values. It replaces both Europe for Citizens and the Rights, Equality and Citizenship programme.

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Call overview

This call aims to protect, promote and raise awareness of fundamental rights by providing financial support to civil society organisations active at local, regional, national and transnational level.

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Objective

This is a call for proposals for EU action grants in the field of Union Values under the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values Programme (CERV).

The objective of the call is to protect, promote and raise awareness of fundamental rights by providing financial support to civil society organisations active at local, regional, national and transnational level in promoting and cultivating those rights, thereby also strengthening the protection and promotion of Union values and respect for the rule of law, and contributing to the construction of a more democratic Union, democratic dialogue, transparency and good governance.

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Scope

This call for proposals aims to promote the founding rights and values of the Union by building primarily civil society organisations’ awareness on and capacity to apply the Charter and to carry out activities to ensure that the fundamental rights enshrined in the Charter are upheld.

Projects can be national or transnational.

Each project application under the call must address only ONE of the following priorities:

• Priority 1. Capacity building and awareness raising on the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights;
• Priority 2. Promoting rights and values by empowering the civic space;
• Priority 3. Strategic litigation;
• Priority 4. Protecting EU values and rights by combating hate crime and hate speech;
• Priority 5. Supporting an enabling environment for the protection of whistleblowers.

Please consult the Call document for more information.

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Eligibility

In order to be eligible, the applicants (lead applicants ‘Coordinator’, co-applicants and affiliated entities) must:

For lead applicants (i.e. the ‘Coordinator’):

• be non-profit legal entities (private bodies);

For co-applicants:

• be non-profit or for profit legal entities (public or private bodies). Organisations which are for profit may apply only in partnership with private non-profit organisations;
• Be formally established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.: EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs))

Other eligibility conditions:

• Activities must take place in any of the eligible countries (EU Member States);

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Consortium composition

Proposals must be submitted by a consortium of at least 1 applicant (beneficiaries,not affiliated entities).

The project can be either national or transnational; the application may involve one or more organisations (lead applicant and co-applicants).

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Project duration

Projects should normally range between 12 and 24 months.

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Budget

The estimated available call budget is EUR 18 000 000.

Specific budget information per priority can be found below:

• Priority 1. Capacity building and awareness raising on the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights: EUR 3 600 000
• Priority 2. Promoting rights and values by empowering the civic space: EUR 3 500 000
• Priority 3. Strategic litigation: EUR 2 400 000
• Priority 4. Protecting EU values and rights by combating hate crime and hate speech: EUR 6 000 000
• Priority 5. Supporting an enabling environment for the protection of whistleblowers: EUR 2 500 000

The EU grant applied for cannot be lower than EUR 75 000;