Project will start running from 1st of July 2003 and will be concluded by 31 December 2004.

The project is open to the participation of all future member states from Central and Eastern Europe as well as to the future Mediterranean member states Malta and Cyprus (activities in Cyprus and Malta will not be financed through Mott grant). The activities of the programme will specifically focus on three target countries: Bulgaria, Romania and Slovenia, but individual components of the programme will be open to all new member states. This means that all the 12 new member states can participate in the training atelier, in the conference about the Structural Funds, and will also have access to the website, the help-desk and help-line set-up for personalised advice within the project.

The following countries are eligible to participate in the project:

Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Malta, and Cyprus.

Depending on the accession process of Croatia, the project could be extended to cover this country as well. Contact has already been established with Government Office for NGOs, which is to be converted into the Civil Society Development Foundation.

As the training and information needs vary from one country to another, we will apply a country-by-country approach, meaning that each country can choose to participate in specific parts of the project.

Problems and Reasons of the extension of the project

On the surface, the process of the European Union enlargement has gathered considerable speed over the last months. Future member states from centra 17117i822r l Europe have signed the Accession Treaty. Their officials and parliamentarians participate as observers at the meetings and proceedings of the European Parliament, Council and other EU institutions. Referenda on accession to the European Union have already taken place in Malta, Slovenia, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Citizens of these countries decided to join the European Union - in many cases by an overwhelming majority.

However, for those who have been following the whole process of enlargement closely, it is clear that there are a number of serious concerns and challenges to be dealt with before it can be safely concluded that the dream of re-uniting two parts of Europe can become a reality.

From the development of civil society perspective, the most important is funding for NGOs in the new member states. It is often expected that EU funding will replace or even increase the amounts of funding currently provided by various private or foreign government bodies who are leaving or about to leave central Europe in expectation that after these countries join the EU their assistance will no longer be needed.

This expectation might never materialize as the EU does not fund civil society as such, but financially contributes to projects by organizations and institutions (i.e. small and medium sized enterprises, cooperatives, local government or training institutions) which implement respective EU policies in particular areas such as the fight against discrimination, social exclusion and poverty. NGOs from the new member states will thus be in a completely new situation and also competing with a number of other organizations and institutions, which might be better resourced than them. Furthermore, there will be no EU budget specifically devoted to the civil society development after enlargement as there has been with the Phare Programme. Whether civil society will be financially supported or not will depend on the national and regional governments. NGOs need to lobby their government to make sure that the amount of EU funding available for civil society development remains at least the same after their country joins the EU.

We need to differentiate between two types of non-governmental organizations. First, advocacy or watchdog organizations will probably find it less easy to access funding. As one of the Czech officials put it: "the Czech government will not pay its critics." This is a broadly shared view among public administration officials in the future member states. Therefore, there needs to be special focus and specific strategy for further financial sustainability of these types of organizations.

Second, service providing organizations will most likely find it less difficult to tap adequate resources as the governments might be inclined to buy their services and even transfer some of their tasks on these organizations. Whether or not this is a good idea is another issue.

Even though the Structural Funds are seen as the possible solution for NGO funding in the long-term future, there is actually very little knowledge of how they are used in the current EU member states and how the partnerships among various types of organizations - NGOs, local government and local businesses are established. In spite of some effort to bring this knowledge to NGOs in the new member states being undertaken, there is still a need to provide concrete, specific examples from the current EU member states to NGOs in the new member states and to help to link them together.

Another important aspect of enlargement is that the citizens and civil society organizations from the future member states of the European Union will have to cope with the challenge of the European integration. It is especially important when it comes to the NGOs, which are important to the social fabric of society. NGOs can link citizens to the European institutions and provide very important feedback on citizens' needs and concerns whilst helping them to exercise and enforce their rights. This is done for example by citizens' advice centres whose network in the new member states, ECAS is helping to develop. Indeed, getting and being linked to cross-border networks, as well as using the relevant EU legislation and policies is necessary for accessing EU funds.

Based on the above analysis of the needs of NGOs in the future EU member states, the new project will be a mixture of activities continuing from the previous phase as well as include a number of new activities.

Even though the programme has a number of optional components, they all are united by the same logic, i.e. to provide NGOs in central Europe with relevant information, transfer skills and contacts with the EU institutions and European civil society.

The following needs and problem bodies could be individualised during the 1st part of the project:

Lack of information and knowledge about the rules and procedures of the Structural Funds, in particular how NGOs can take part in the programming and the implementation of the Structural Funds and the Community Initiatives;

Lack of information and knowledge about the Community Programmes; 

Lack of information and competence in how to build intra-and intersectoral partnership and how to take part in European associations of NGOs; Lack of practical knowledge on how the EU institutions work and the role of European Associations.

Objectives

The overall objective is to increase the knowledge of NGO staff from the future European Union member states regarding EU policies, legislation, and funding procedures; to strengthen their capacity to access various types of EU funding (Community Action Programmes, Community Initiatives and Structural Funds); and to help influence relevant EU and national policies.

More particularly, the aim is to create a viable group of EU affairs specialists in the national NGO community and to provide them with direct access to EU institutions and policies through information and consultancy services provided by ECAS.

Another objective is to transfer experiences with successful projects funded by EU Structural Funds in the current member states to NGOs in the new EU member states, so that they can orientate themselves better in the future funding opportunities. This will be done not only by training seminars but also by consultancy services responding to particular needs of NGOs in the future member states. It is also hoped that their involvement with the EU will help strengthen the position with their own governments. Following is the outline of the three principle objectives of the Information, Training and Scholarship Programme.

Objective 1: Information and Communication

Increase the knowledge and competence of the NGOs in the new member states about relevant EU policies, decision-making, legislation and funding procedures and possibilities for NGOs.

Increase the knowledge and competence of the NGOs in the new member states about the role played by networks of European NGOs.

Increase the knowledge about EU Structural Funds by providing information about the procedures and principles of importance for the functioning of the Structural Funds.

Objective 2: Training

Improve the knowledge about intra and intersectoral partnership building on a local, national and international level.

Improve the theoretical and practical knowledge about the EU decision-making process, the Acquis Communautaire and the role and importance of European associations and networks.

Improve the theoretical and practical knowledge about how to work with the EU funding, in particular the Community Programmes, the Structural Funds and the Community Initiatives.

Objective 3: On the job Training

Improve the access to Brussels based EU institutions (European Commission, Council, European Parliament) as well as to European NGO networks.

Improve the practical knowledge of the Structural Funds through transfer of best practices.

Improve the practical knowledge of EU funding through networking, partnership building, project proposal writing and international cooperation.

The specific (project) activities will therefore contribute to the core problem and can be defined as follows:

Information and Communication

Website with information on EU policies, EU funding, EU institutions, and the decision-making process, etc.

Training and information material

Publications: Vademecum on partnership building; Guide to EU networks of NGOs, and the ECAS' Funding guide

Conference on Structural Funds,

help-desk, help-line;

Training

Three workshops in Bulgaria, Romania and Slovenia,

Training atelier in Brussels and Antwerp

On the job-training

Study visits to Brussels,

Scholarships in Brussels;

Study visits to Structural Fund projects in the current EU member states.

How the project intends to build on the previous project

In the course of the first phase of the programme, excellent working relations and partnerships were established with NGOs in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Slovenia and Romania. Furthermore, cooperation has been established and further possibilities of common activities are currently being explored in Bulgaria, Estonia and Latvia. Following is the detailed description of achievements in individual areas of the programme:

Information and Publications

As a result of close cooperation with partners in the Czech and Slovak Republics, ECAS Funding Guide for NGOs has been translated into Czech and Slovak and distributed among NGOs in both countries (2, 500 copies were published in the Czech Republic with financial support of the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs and 500 copies in Slovakia with financial contribution of the Commission Delegation). The English version has been distributed widely in Hungary.

Part of the Guide has also been translated and incorporated into the Newsletter of Civil Society Development Foundation (CSDF), Romania and several chapters of the Guide were translated into Polish in cooperation with the Polish NGO Office in Brussels.

ECAS has also responded to a number of individual requests for information on EU institutions, funding opportunities and prospective EU partners from Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Latvian and Slovene NGOs. These requests were sent by e-mail or presented by visitors from central Europe who came to the ECAS office. These included the Environmental Partnership for Central Europe Foundation (Nadace partnerstvi), Czech Caritas, Center for Environmental Public Advocacy, Slovakia, Environmental Law Service from the Czech Republic, the Soros Foundation in Latvia and the Regional Social Welfare Resource Centre from Budapest amongst others. Most questions were focused on whether there was a specific budget line in the EU budget to fund particular activities, i.e. environmental protection, environmental advocacy, social care etc. In general, most NGOs were interested in how they can find EU partners and how they can make sure that these partners are reliable.

Training

Training seminars in Slovakia have been highly appreciated by the participants. An overwhelming majority of evaluation forms, which were handed out to them at the end of each training seminar, scaled excellent. At the end of the first training seminar, one of the participants from Kosice said that in two days she has learned more about the EU institutional structure and decision-making procedures than during two years of university studies. Another participant wrote in the evaluation form that the training seminar helped him to understand mutual relationships among EU institutions and the context in which they operate: "finally it is clear to me how the EU institutions function and how the decision-making process is structured" - he wrote.

In Hungary the situation has been similar: there were 155 applicants for the training programme out of which 25 have been chosen to participate in training seminars. An extensive transparent selection procedure was developed including interviews with a  representative from ECAS participating.

Hungarian participants liked very much the materials they were given at the beginning of the first seminar, which contained information on the Schengen Agreement, various issues of the EU accession, the European Youth Calendar published by Generation Europe Hungary Foundation, a book EU Accession 2004 published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a book We, Europeans written by Richard Hill as well as the presentation of Cecilia Lo Piparo Liljegren on the history of the EU and tips on funding translated into Hungarian.

One-off training seminars have been also organized in Romania for the Civil Society Development Foundation (CSDF), Poland and Slovenia. These training seminars focused especially on EU funding opportunities, providing an explanation about various EU funding programmes including Community Action Programmes and Community Initiatives under the Structural Funds.

Study Visits to Brussels

Together with the Civil Society Development Foundation (NROS) in the Czech Republic, ECAS organized a visit of 40 representatives of Czech NGOs to Brussels in June 2003. These NGOs represented a very broad spectrum of activities and ideas. Major organizations such as People in Need or Caritas together with smaller organizations from provinces took part. ECAS secured a venue free of charge at the European Parliament, which helped to bring a number of key persons from both the European Institutions and Brussels based NGOs to this meeting. This was an opportunity for the Czech NGOs to receive orientation on the issues being discussed in Brussels and it also gave them a first-hand information about the future funding opportunities and policy debates on the EU level. The programme of the visit is attached in the annex.

The study visit of Hungarian NGOs to Brussels took place in October and November of this year. The Open Society Foundation, Hungary funded one of the visits.

Opportunities for similar events are also being explored with the Slovenian Government Office for NGOs and the Slovenian Centre for Information Service, Co-operation and Development of NGOs - CNVOS.

Scholarships to Brussels

ECAS has advertised the scholarship programme on its website and also through its partners in the respective countries. So far several organizations from the Czech and Slovak Republics, Hungary and Poland expressed their interest in the scholarship programme.  First scholars from the Czech Republic and Slovakia have already participated in the programme in October and November this year. More scholars are scheduled to come in December and throughout the whole of 2004.

Detailed description of activities

There are three main project activity areas:

Information and Communications

Training of NGOs in the Future Member States

Study visits and Scholarships in Brussels and to current Member States

Information and Communication

Website

E-mail alerts

Publications (Vademecum on partnership and Guide to European networks of NGOs) - new

Help-line and help-desk for NGOs in the new EU member states to help them to identify EU funding for their particular projects, to look for prospective partners in both current and new member states. ECAS will also help with developing EU grant proposals and lobbying strategies on EU and/or national levels - new

Conference on EU Structural Funds in one of the future member states - new

This part of the programme is meant to be an interactive exercise rather than just a passive transfer of information. Therefore several segments are included - information on the website, e-mail alerts, help-desk with personalised advice. It will make a major difference for the NGOs from the new member states to have direct access to personalised and direct advice services, which they would not be able to afford otherwise.

The activities under this segment of our programme are linked together, i.e. NGOs in the new member states will be able to benefit from general information including alerts on EU funding, i.e. deadlines for calls for proposals and monitoring of relevant EU policies as well as specific information geared towards their particular needs.

Furthermore, ECAS will provide information about Brussels based networks as well as about NGOs in the new member states. According to our experience, there is a need on both sides of the NGO sector to learn about prospective partners. Knowledge of "the other side" is often very limited. This "partner search" will complement other services already mention before.

Improved website will be launched in the course of the project.

Free consultancy services through the help-desk and help-line will be made available to NGOs in the new member states through ECAS.

As a result of this project and our experiences in this area several specialized publications will be launched including the Funding Guide on EU funding for NGOs (1000 copies), Guide on the European Associations (500 copies) and Vademecum on Partnership (500 copies).

Conference on the Structural Funds

A Conference EU Structural Funds and Civil Society: "Myths and Realities" will be organized in 2004 and will explore challenges civil society in the enlarged EU will be facing when accessing EU Structural Funds. It will also provide examples of successful use of EU Structural Funds by NGOs in the old member states. This conference is foreseen to last two days and to bring together 70 participants from the new member states and 20 from the old member states. There will be both plenary sessions where the general themes will be introduced as well as number of smaller workshops in which participants will have an opportunity to familiarize themselves with successfully conducted projects in the old member states.

Training of NGOs in the Future Member States

New training cycles consisting of three seminars in 3 future member states, i.e. Bulgaria, Romania and Slovenia

Multiplication of training seminars based on ECAS "training packs" in other countries, i.e. Slovakia - new

Training Atelier for NGOs in the future member states - new

Three training seminars are scheduled in the course of the duration of the project in each of the three participating countries, i.e. Bulgaria, Romania and Slovenia. These seminars will follow successful training modules developed earlier for Slovakia and Hungary but will also reflect new realities and recently arising needs, i.e. lobbying strategies on providing sufficient financial resources for development of civil society in the new member states towards both the EU institutions and national governments. Another modification in the training module will be to place more emphasis on EU Structural Funds and specifically to transfer a number of successful examples demostrating NGOs playing a role in their implementation.

ECAS training seminars will explain the historical background of EU Structural Funds, their essential principles, such as the principle of partnership, by bringing concrete examples of projects from the old member states including direct experience through on site visits in Italy, UK, Germany, Sweden and Belgium.

The training seminars will also reflect accession of ten new member states in May 2004 and consequent institutional and legal changes in the EU structure. Therefore they will include analysis of the Convention on the Future of Europe and the role European NGO networks played in it. Furthermore draft Constitutional Treaty and changes in the institutional framework of the enlarged Union will be discussed.

It is foreseen that trainers for the training seminars will be drawn from both foreign and local experts. ECAS has already established links with institutions specialized in the EU affairs such as the European Institute in Bulgaria, which have good knowledge of the process of European integration. This local knowledge will be matched by foreign experts who have specific knowledge of advocacy or fundraising activities in Brussels and/or their own countries.

It is expected that upon completion of the training seminars the participants will be able to orientate themselves in the EU institutional framework, relevant policies and funding opportunities. This will be further enhanced by direct working experience in Brussels and in the old member states.

In each country 25 participants are to benefit from the training seminars, i.e. 75 if three countries participate. There will also be a considerable number of indirect beneficiaries in countries such as Slovakia where training seminars based on earlier developed training package will take place. It is foreseen that at least two countries will receive funding for training seminars from the Commission budget.

Following is the outline of the programme of the three trainings:

Training atelier

Bilateral national training programmes will be supplemented by two multilateral events: a training atelier in Brussels and in Antwerp and a conference on the structural funds in one of the new member states.

The atelier will be held in Brussels and Antwerp and will bring together key figures from the NGO community in both the current and future EU member states. The results of the atelier will ensure an increase in efficiency of the Commission's programmes and will contribute to better orientation of NGOs in the EU labyrinth and corridors of power.

The project should also increase confidence about approaching the EU, advocacy and becoming members in European networks. Moreover, this training programme will differ from other training programmes because it is cross-sectoral and will bring together NGOs from both current and future EU member states, thus providing an unique opportunity for networking and to build partnerships.

Another focus of this training will be the "acquis communautaire." As future member states take on the "acquis communautaire," NGOs have a watchdog function in analysing how far EU environmental, social and consumer law, as well as the Amsterdam Treaty area of freedom, security and justice will affect their role and to what extent EU legislation is being properly enfo

Study visits and Scholarships in Brussels

STUDY VISITS: Short-term study visits of NGOs from the new EU member states to Brussels to familiarize themselves with EU institutions and to give them the opportunity to voice their concerns about their role in the enlarged European Union

SCHOLARSHIPS: Individual longer-term visits of NGO representatives from the new member states in Brussels to familiarize themselves with EU institutions, European NGO networks and policy agenda in particular area of interest

STUDY VISITS TO THE CURRENT MEMBER STATES: On site study visits to the old EU member states to exchange experiences about successful projects funded by EU Structural Funds - new

It is foreseen that at this stage of the programme NGOs in the new member states have already received enough training and information support to be able to fully benefit from their visit to Brussels and to the old member states.

There will be two types of exchanges: a) short and long-term visits to Brussels and b) short-term visits to current member states to familiarize themselves with projects funded through Structural Funds, in which NGOs played role.

Short and long-term visits to Brussels will be organized so that the participants can better understand and relate to various EU institutions and can also better understand relevant EU policies. Long-term visits will provide an opportunity to follow day-to-day work of ECAS including its advocacy activities in the European Parliament, to meet relevant EU networks and to participate at NGO platforms meetings in Brussels. This part of the programme will also contribute to better and closer, in certain respect more intimate contacts between NGOs from new and old member states. At the moment it is very difficult to meet Romanian, Czech or Slovak NGOs in Brussels. This programme will make substantial difference in this respect. It will be possible for NGOs from the new member states to continue a study visit in Brussels with visits to Structural Fund projects in the old member states.