The Fourth Call of Proposals is now open! Click here to download details to help you participate in this Call. Click here to find out more about dates relating to this Call.
Twenty applications were submitted to the Third Call for Proposals of which 6 organisations have been selected by the Presidency Fund Board for support. These are- Focus Association for Sustainable Development, Slovenia, Network of East-West Women, Poland, Environment Management & Law Association, Hungary, Hungarian Association for Development & Humanitarian Aid, National Platform of Maltese NGDOs and MiTi, Latvia. Click here to read details of these projects.
The Presidency Fund was created in 2005 to promote the engagement of NGOs and other civil society actors from the 10 New Member States in the European Union’s Development Policy Debates. The membership of the ten presents a unique opportunity to strengthen debate about the European Union’s role in the world and its co-operation with developing countries. Proposals are now invited from NGOs based in one of the ten member state countries that entered the European Union on 1 May 2004.
The Presidency Fund was established with the support of the Irish and Dutch Governments, both of which held the Presidency of the European Union in 2004 at the time of the accession of the ten New Member States.
With the First Call for Proposals almost €240,000 was granted in aid to help finance the activities of 7 organisations. The implementation of these projects is nearing the closing phase. Click here to download the Mid-Term reports of these projects. The 7 proposals selected for support by the Fund were chosen from an initial 99 originally presented in response to its first Call for Proposals.
Six organisations are receiving support from the Second Call.
Information about the organisations and summaries of their projects are now
available on this website.
The actions supported by the Presidency Fund
all focus on promoting more effective engagements by NGOs in policy dialogue.
The projects include establishing a Gender Watch network focusing on the EU’s
co-operation with countries in the CEE/CIS regions, supporting the active
involvement of NGOs from Malta, Cyprus and Slovenia around the EU’s co-operation
with countries in the Mediterranean basin within the Barcelona process,
promoting the involvement of Visegrad country NGOs in debates on
development/trade policy coherence, and strengthening the capacity of
organizations in Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and
Malta to engage in development policy dialogue nationally and in Europe. The
Presidency Fund strongly supports the activities of National NGDO Platforms
across the New Member States. The National NGDO Platforms in the following
countries are presently carrying out projects with the support of the Presidency
Fund: Estonia, Latvia, Hungary, Slovenia. In Cyprus the Presidency Fund had
provided aid to an organisation that has taken the responsibility to bridge the
geo-political divide to bring together the Cypriot NGDOs in to a network of
organisations that could later form the foundations of a National Platform.
“We are pleased that with the support of the Dutch and Irish governments we are able to strengthen civil society involvement from the most recently joined countries of the EU. Civil society has a critical role to play; not only in pressing governments to meet their commitments, but also to ensure that development policy remains focused on eradicating poverty and achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015” said Simon Stocker, Managing Director of the Fund.