The DG Enlargement Unit organized the IPA Donors meeting to present the multi-annual plan for 2011-2013. The general objective was to discuss and elaborate the project fiches for 2011, which are now open for consultation till the 15th of November. The speakers included members of the DG Enlargement Unit and the meeting was moderated by Mr Engstroem, Head of Unit of the Regional Programme. For the first time the Commission has this year invited the representative of local stakeholders, in this capacity, the TACSO Local Advisory Groups (LAGs) were invited as well as the TACSO Programming Committee. The BCSDN has been invited to attend the meeting in its role as the member of the TACSO/CSF Programme Committee.
The Multi-Beneficiary planning document for the period of 2011-2013 ensures that Europe 2020 strategy’s priorities also come together with the enlargement policy. As priorities for the upcoming package, the main sectors to be supported are: Justice, Freedom and Security, Human Rights, Minorities and Vulnerable Groups, Public Administration, Sector Statistics, Support to Civil Society, Economic Development, Sector Infrastructure, Environment, Nuclear Safety, Social Safety and Reconciliation and Confidence Building.
The Civil Society Facility will be implemented with a revised approach to help civil society finance its own activities and thereby to be able to play its role in the society. The establishment of a new mechanism to better identify the needs is foreseen in each country through cooperation of TACSO with the LAGs. This will enable tailoring the support on a long-term basis. Smaller, operational grants will be provided to better reach out the community based organisations and some twinning-like arrangements and partnerships with stronger, already established organisations as mentors and facilitators for smaller organisations. A new call for proposals will be open for bigger organizations with regional activities to better determinate the needs in the region and to help benefit the smaller organisation from the Civil Society Facility.