The European Commission is seeking proposals from civil society throughout Cyprus to provide support amounting to a total of 2.25 million euro in grants, according to a press release issued on Tuesday. The call focuses on environmental actions, bi-communal confidence building actions, strengthening Turkish Cypriot civil society, and supporting organisations that have not received funding in the past. The ninth Cypriot civil society in action grant scheme, funded through the Aid Programme for the Turkish Cypriot community of the EU, aims to enhance trust, dialogue, and cooperation and in promoting European Union values and standards through actions that contribute to promoting the reunification of Cyprus, as it is noted. This call for proposals is divided to four categories with different priorities: - to increase the capacities of civil society organisations in the Turkish Cypriot community to achieve the targets of the European Green Deal (category 1 - Environmental actions), - to promote dialogue and co llaboration among the Cypriot communities via confidence building measures and joint actions by civil society organisations across the divide (category 2: Bi-communal confidence building actions), - to encourage civil society in the Turkish Cypriot community to pursue meaningful socio-economic change by participating in decision-making, influencing changes and fostering sectoral and cross-sectoral cooperation at local and EU level (category 3: Strengthening civil society in the Turkish Cypriot community) and - to especially encourage diversification of EU funding to civil society organisations who have not previously benefited from EU grants in the Turkish Cypriot community (category 4: New applicants). According to the press release, the amount of 500,000 euros is earmarked each of the first two categories and applicants can request an EU contribution from 100,000 to 125,000 euros. The fund for category 3 projects is 950,000 euros, and applicants can request an EU contribution from 100,000 to 200,000 eur os. The fund for category 4 projects is 300,000 euros and applicants can request an EU contribution from 40,000 to 100,000 euros. The EU contribution for all categories can represent 60% to 95% of the total amount of the proposed action. Actions proposed under categories 1, 3 and 4 may be implemented by one or more applicants, however the lead applicant has to be registered in the Turkish Cypriot community. Actions proposed under category 2 should be implemented with a minimum of two applicants, one from the Turkish Cypriot community and one from the Greek Cypriot community. Additional co-applicants can be registered outside Cyprus. At the initial stage, the call for proposals is restricted to concept notes. The deadline for submission of the proposals is 22 July 2024 at 15:00 Brussels time (16:00 Cyprus time). Source: Cyprus News Agency
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