Important changes in the YiA Programme Guide 2012

The new "Eastern Partnership Youth Window" is created!

For years 2012-2013 European Commission allocated additional funds for cooperation within Youth in Action Programme with the countries of the Eastern Partnership  countries creating “Eastern Partnership Youth Window”.

This window will provide additional funding  in order to support a higher number of projects and participants from the six Eastern Partnership countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine. The additional funds will be managed both at centralised and decentralised level.

source: euroeastculture.eu 

The Eastern Partnership Youth Window is part of a broader range of initiatives undertaken by the European Commission to increase support to cooperation with the Eastern Partnership neighbouring countries in the field of youth.

Under this initiative, it is envisaged to provide additional funds to the EU Youth in Action Programme over the period 2012-2013 through the European Neighbourhood Policy Instrument (ENPI) in order to increase opportunities for cooperation among young people, youth workers and youth organisations from the European Union as well as from the Eastern Partnership neighbouring countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

Concretely, the Eastern Partnership Youth Window means new opportunities to finance more projects involving organisations and participants from the Eastern Partnership region.

The Eastern Partnership Youth Window is not a new programme, but rather a new framework within the Youth in Action Programme to encourage a stronger involvement of the Eastern Partnership region.

The window will concern the following actions:

• European Voluntary Service (Action 2)
• Cooperation with the Neighbouring Partner Countries of the EU (sub-Action 3.1)

The overall additional budget for this window is expected to amount to 31.5 Millions of EUR for the period 2012-2013, which would be split as follows:

• 12.5 millions of EUR for two years for centralised actions to be managed by the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). It will provide new opportunities for organizations from EaP countries to apply directly to Brussels to get grants  within Action 3.1 and Action 2 of the YiA Programme
• 19 millions of EUR for two years for decentralised actions to be managed by the National Agencies.

Project proposals can be submitted by one of the following promoters:

• Non profit/non governmental organisations, or
• Local, regional public bodies, or
• Bodies active at European level in the youth field

legally established in a Programme Country (27 EU Member States, EEA/EFTA countries, Croatia, Switzerland, Turkey) or in an Eastern Partnership Neighbouring Country (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine).

Projects should be based on a solid, balanced partnership between promoters based in Programme Countries and promoters based in the Eastern Partnership Countries. One of the partners takes the lead in ensuring the coordination of the project, submitting the project application and managing the grant.

All the conditions and criteria on how to submit a project application can be found in the Youth in Action Programme Guide, which is available at: http://ec.europa.eu/youth/youth-in-action-programme/programme-guide_en.htm

Promoters based in the Eastern Partnership countries and hosting the activity must submit their project proposals to the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency in Brussels. Details on how to submit a project to the EACEA can be found on the Agency's website: http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/youth/programme/how_apply_en.php#calendar

A project, to get a grant within the EaP Youth Window, has to fulfil specific criteria.

In addition to the permanent and annual priorities of the Youth in Action Programme, projects to be funded under the Eastern Partnership Youth Window shall also take into account certain specific priorities of the Window.

Priority in awarding grants under this Window will be given to:

• projects demonstrating a clear commitment to provide support to young people with fewer opportunities  living in rural or deprived urban areas
• projects raising awareness about the nature of youth work
• projects promoting the sharing of best practices in the sphere of youth work.

New deadlines for project applications per year

Since 2012 there are only three deadlines for project applications.

For projects submitted to National Agency they are on:

• 1st  February
• 1st May
• 1st October

The earliest possible date for start of a project is 3 months after deadline.

For projects submitted to the Executive Agency they are on:

• 1st February
• 1st June
• 1st September

The earliest possible date for start of a project is 6 months after deadline.

The establishment of the Eastern Partnership Youth Window is one of the main initiatives of the European Commission to respond to the needs of young people from Eastern Partnership Countries.

The Window will allow more young people from the EU and the Eastern Partnership countries to establish new contacts and to exchange and learn from each other.  It will also help youth workers from both sides to benefit from training and capacity-building opportunities, improving their competences in working with young people, particularly those from rural or deprived urban areas and from the most disadvantaged backgrounds.

All this will ultimately contribute to the broad objectives of the European Neighbourhood Policy to strengthen the partnership between the EU and the neighbouring countries by building a stronger partnership with the people living in those countries.

Budget changes for projects within the Youth in Action Programme

Since 2012 there are new budget categories:

• Travel costs (including Advance Planning Visit in Youth Exchanges)
• Project costs – directly linked to implementation of project, e.g. costs for preparation of activities, food, accommodation, dissemination of results and others)
• Exceptional costs – visa-related costs, accommodation and food for participants of Advance Planning Visits, costs related to young people with fewer opportunities and special needs.

Detailed information about new funding rules as well as lump sums and scales of unit costs for particular actions one can find in relevant chapters of “Programme Guide 2012” available here.

Internal partnership agreement

The EC recommends that all promoters involver in Youth in Action project sign an internal partnership agreement. Its goal is to defy tasks,  responsibilities and financial contributions for all parties involved in one project.

Information how such agreement should look like are at the end of each chapter of “Programme guide” in section “How is the EU finding shared among projects promoters”.