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Call key data
Supporting an enabling environment for the protection of whistleblowers
Funding Program
Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values programme
Call number
CERV-2023-CHAR-LITI-WHISTLE
deadlines
Opening
24.01.2023
Deadline
25.05.2023 17:00
Funding rate
90%
Call budget
€ 16,000,000.00
Estimated EU contribution per project
no limit
Link to the call
Link to the submission
Call content
short description
This call for proposals will promote right and values by building primarily civil society organisations capacity and awareness on the Charter and by carrying out activities to ensure that the Charter is upheld. Projects will be selected to ensure a balanced representation of the five priorities. Projects can be national or transnational. Transnational projects are particularly encouraged.
Call objectives
A Union of values and rights is also based on effective law enforcement systems and the effective detection, investigation and prosecution of breaches of Union law. Support will be given to creating an enabling environment for reporting and informing on breaches of the Union law, in particular by building capacity on the effective application of the Directive on whistleblower protection (Directive (EU) 2019/1937). This Directive provides for an obligation to establish internal and external reporting channels, a strict obligation to maintain the confidentiality of the reporting person as well as for high standards of protection from retaliation and legal remedies for whistleblowers who report on breaches of EU law in a wide range of key policy areas, thus promoting the fundamental values of the rule of law and democracy as well as the right to freedom of expression, enshrined in Article 11 of the Charter.
Civil society organisations play a crucial role in help ensuring an effective implementation of these legal standards. Projects under this priority should support and protect whistleblowers and build capacity of national authorities and legal practitioners to ensure adequate legal remedies to protect whistleblowers.
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Expected effects and impacts
- Increased awareness and understanding by the general public and by potential whistleblowers, of the existing reporting channels and procedures, as well as of the rights provided under the Directive on whistleblower protection ;
- Increased capacity and knowledge of civil society and, if where relevant aof other representatives, such as national authorities or practitioners active in the field of whistleblowing protection, to correctly apply the Directive’s rules addressed to private organisations and public entities;
- Improved effectiveness and coherence of the Directive’s application, including through improved cooperation between national, regional or local authorities and civil society.
- Enhanced data collection on whistleblower reports and cases of retaliation and enhanced capacity of the national systems to record whistleblower reports and cases and to assess the effectiveness of the national laws transposing the Directive.
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Expected results
The following activities can be covered:
- Activities to build the capacity for civil society organisations and, for national regional or local public authorities, legal practitioners and private organisations active in the field of implementation of the Directive on whistleblower protection, where these are in partnership with civil society organisations, including by developing targeted guidance or training materials or train-the-trainer programs;
- Activities and tools to promote awareness raising and communication activities to increase the public’s knowledge and understanding of the national laws transposing the Directive, of the existence of the internal and external reporting channels and the legal remedies and measures of protection available in case retaliation occurs;
- Analytical activities, such as sex-disaggregated data collection on whistleblower reports and cases of retaliation, development of indicators to effectively record cases and research, in particular on caselaw and the creation of tools or other databases (e.g. on the collection of the data mentioned above and thematic databases of jurisprudence);
- Mutual learning activities and activities aimed at exchange of good practices on the effective implementation of the Directive, in particular as regards the establishment of internal or external reporting channels, handling of whistleblowing reports, effective measures to ensure confidentiality and the application of adequate legal remedies for the protection of whistleblowers against retaliation and of support measures for whistleblowers;
- Activities enhancing and facilitating cooperation between national authorities and civil society organisations, including by elaborating national, regional or local protocols on whistleblower protection.
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Eligibility Criteria
Regions / countries for funding
eligible entities
Education and training institution, International organization, Non-Profit Organisation (NPO) / Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Other, Private institution, incl. private company (private for profit), Public Body (national, regional and local; incl. EGTCs), Research Institution incl. University, Small and medium-sized enterprise (SME)
Mandatory partnership
No
Project Partnership
Proposals can be submitted by one or more organisations (lead applicant “Coordinator” and co-applicants).
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 profit legal entities (public or private bodies). Organisations which are profit-oriented 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
Specific cases:
- Natural persons are NOT eligible (with the exception of selfemployed persons, i.e. sole traders, where the company does not have legal personality separate from that of the natural person).
- International organisations are eligible. The rules on eligible countries do not apply to them.
- Entities which do not have legal personality under their national law may exceptionally participate, provided that their representatives have the capacity to undertake legal obligations on their behalf, and offer guarantees for the protection of the EU financial interests equivalent to that offered by legal persons.
- EU bodies (with the exception of the European Commission Joint Research Centre) can NOT be part of the consortium.
- Entities composed of members may participate as ‘sole beneficiaries’ or ‘beneficiaries without legal personality'. Please note that if the action will be implemented by the members, they should also participate (either as beneficiaries or as affiliated entities, otherwise their costs will NOT be eligible).
- Programme Contact Points are eligible as coordinator or beneficiary in open calls, if they have procedures to segregate the project management and the information provision functions and if they are able to demonstrate cost separation (i.e. that their project grants do not cover any costs which are covered by their other grant). This requires the following:
- use of analytical accounting which allows for a cost accounting management with cost allocation keys and cost accounting codes AND application of these keys and codes to identify and separate the costs (i.e. to allocate them to either one of the two grants)
- recording of all real costs incurred for the activities that are covered by the two grants (including the indirect costs)
- allocation of the costs in a way that leads to a fair, objective and realistic result.
other eligibility criteria
The EU grant applied for cannot be lower than € 75,000.00.
Financial support to third parties is not allowed.
Additional information
Topics
Relevance for EU Macro-Region
EUSAIR - EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region, EUSALP - EU Strategy for the Alpine Space, EUSBSR - EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, EUSDR - EU Strategy for the Danube Region
UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs)
project duration
12-24 months
Additional Information
Proposals must be submitted electronically via the Funding & Tenders Portal Electronic Submission System (accessible via the Topic page in the Search Funding & Tenders section). Paper submissions are NOT possible.
Proposals (including annexes and supporting documents) must be submitted using the forms provided inside the Submission System ( NOT the documents available on the Topic page — they are only for information).
Proposals must be complete and contain all the requested information and all required annexes and supporting documents:
- Application Form Part A — contains administrative information about the participants (future coordinator, beneficiaries and affiliated entities) and the summarised budget for the project (to be filled in directly online)
- Application Form Part B — contains the technical description of the project (to be downloaded from the Portal Submission System, completed and then assembled and re-uploaded)
- Application Form Part C (to be filled in directly online) containing additional project data including mandatory indicators
- mandatory annexes and supporting documents (to be uploaded):
- CVs (standard) of core project team
- the coordinator's activity report of last year (n/a for newly established organisations)
- the coordinator's list of previous projects (key projects for the last 4 years) (n/a for newly established organisations)
- for any of the participants implementing activities involving children (person under the age of 18): their child protection policy covering the four areas described in the Keeping Children Safe Child Safeguarding Standards.
Proposals are limited to maximum 70 pages (Part B).
Call documents
CERV-2023-CHAR-LITI_call document-ENCERV-2023-CHAR-LITI_call document-EN(531kB)
Contact
+43 1 531 15–202907
ernst.holzinger@bka.gv.at
Website
CERV Contact Points 2021-2027
Website
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