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 enable civil society organisations to establish mechanisms of cooperation with public authorities to support the reporting and recording of episodes of hate crime and hate speech.

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Call detail

All forms and manifestations of hatred are incompatible with the EU values and the fundamental rights enshrined in Article 2 of the Treaty and the Charter. Hatred affects the individual victims and the groups they belong to, generates societal polarisation and silences wide sectors of the population, weakening pluralism and undermining respectful public democratic debates. The online world has amplified the negative effects of hate speech. Hate crimes are a direct violation of the victims’ fundamental right to dignity, to equality and non-discrimination. Combating hate speech and hate crime is therefore a key part of the Commission’s action to promote EU values and to ensure that the Charter is upheld.

At EU level, the 2008 Council Framework Decision requires the criminalisation of certain forms of hate speech and hate crimes. Also, the Commission adopted a Communication in December 2021 inviting the Council of the European Union to extend the legal basis for EU-level criminalisation to other forms of hate speech and hate crime beyond the racist and xenophobic grounds already covered by the Framework Decision.

Recently, the EU is experiencing an alarming increase in hate speech and hate crime, including physical and online attacks targeting in particular the Jewish and Muslim communities in Europe. The Joint Communication on “No Place for Hate” confirms a strong commitment to step up EU efforts to fight hatred in all its forms, by reinforcing action across a variety of policies.

As recognised by the Communication, civil society organisations play a crucial role in combating hate speech and hate crime, thereby safeguarding and promoting fundamental rights. Projects under this priority should aim to enable civil society organisations to establish mechanisms of cooperation with public authorities in particular to support the reporting and recording of episodes of hate crime and hate speech; to ensure support to victims of hate speech and hate crime; and to support law enforcement, including through training or data collection methodologies and tools. Projects should also focus on activities to tackle hate speech online, including reporting content to IT companies, designing countering narrative and awareness raising campaigns, and educational activities to address the societal challenges of hate speech online.

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Activities funded

The following activities can be covered:

• Activities to increase the general awareness of the societal consequences of hatred and polarisation, and to address their root causes, particularly in the fields of teaching and education;
• Activities to enable civil society organisations to work in synergy with competent authorities to support the reporting and recording of episodes of hate, including with a focus on specific grounds, and to contribute to the creation of data collection methodologies and mechanisms;
• Activities to ensure support to victims of hate speech and hate crime, encouraging reporting, providing practical help in seeking redress and gender-sensitive and psycho-social support;
• Activities to support the enforcement of existing legislation prohibiting hate speech and hate crime, including through training for law enforcement and justice professionals;
• Activities to elaborate national or local coalitions or action plans against hate speech and hate crime, and to establish or reinforce mechanisms of structured cooperation, particularly between civil society organisations and public authorities in the area of tackling hate crime and hate speech, including to support investigation and prosecution and to protect victims;
• Activities to enhance the resilience of civil society organisations working on combating racism, antisemitism, hate speech and hate crime in all its forms, against threats and in particular cyber-attacks;
• Activities to tackle hate speech online, in particular to monitor the prevalence of hate speech on social media and the “ecosystems” of hatred online, to report hate speech content to IT companies, and to design effective initiatives to prevent and combat hate speech. These can include campaigns or educational activities to address the societal challenges of hate speech online.

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Expected impact

• Increased awareness about the societal effects of hate speech and hate crime, including more effective outreach to individuals and groups at risk of hate victimisation, thereby raising awareness of their rights, including through schools and educational activities;
• Increased knowledge of EU and national hate crime and hate speech legislation;
• Strengthened national or local actions to enhance the capacity of authorities, in particular law enforcement agencies to detect bias indicators and to effectively investigate and prosecute offences, including through multi-stakeholder cooperation;
• Enhanced hate crime recording and data collection methodologies;
• More effective mechanisms to report hate speech and hate crimes and to empower victims and witnesses to come forward;
• Enhanced assistance to victims to access specialist support, providing both victims and witnesses with emotional support, practical help and information;
• Encreased knowledge on the prevalence and “ecosystems” of hatred on the different online platforms, in the various national and linguistic contexts;
• Increased effectiveness of notice and action mechanisms by online platforms to enable a prompt assessment and removal of hate speech content;
• Increased awareness among the general population about hate speech and its negative effects on democracy and pluralism;
• Enhanced resilience of civil society organisations to carry out their work against hateful groups and greater capacity to respond to attacks.

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

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Consortium composition

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.