Doelstellingen
The overall purpose of the EAST-INVEST programme is to develop mechanisms encouraging new flows of Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) and to strengthen the ongoing investment promotion process between the EU and the Eastern Neighbourhood Countries, as well as between the Eastern Neighbourhood Countries, which will improve the business and investment climate in the region and will contribute to the enhancement of trade in the region.
1.2.2 Specific objectives
To reach its main purpose, the programme focuses on specific objectives aiming at:
• Strengthening public-private dialogue, notably by integrating SMEs, business facilitators and selected public-sector SME facilitators into the networking mechanisms;
• Facilitating exchange of best-practices and interconnections between EU and Eastern Neighbourhood companies in order to favour business co-operation agreements, mutual trade, transfer of technology, customs procedures, product standards , and investment;
• Developing the capacity of Eastern Neighbourhood SME support organisations to facilitate improved SME networking and trade development.
At the heart of the programme will be two articulating business networks, one in the EU (EURONET) and one in the Eastern Neighbourhood Region (EAST-NET).
The programme will be managed by a Consortium including key EAST-INVEST stakeholders (see minimum consortium composition requirements in section 2.1 below). The Consortium will appoint a National Focal Point to manage day-to-day programme operations in each of the six Eastern Neighbourhood Countries.
Budget
The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 7.000.000. The Contracting Authority reserves the right not to award all available funds.
The Call for Proposals is not divided into lots.
Size of grants
One single contract will be awarded under this Call for Proposals.
Accordingly the requested grant must amount to EUR 7.000.000.
The grant contract may not be for less than 50 % of the total eligible costs of the action. In addition, no grant may exceed 80 % of the total eligible costs of the action (see also section 2.1.4). The balance must be financed from the applicant's or partners' own resources, or from sources other than the European Community budget or the European Development Fund.
Wie kan deelnemen
EAST-INVEST is a large and ambitious project. It constitutes a major element in the initiatives launched by the European Commission towards the Eastern Neighbourhood Partner Countries.
It is therefore of utmost importance that EAST-INVEST be managed and implemented in the most professional and experienced way.
Accordingly, the European Commission, in the assessment of the proposals, will pay a particular attention to the following aspects:
Consortia should demonstrate that they are supported by a network of EU and of Eastern Neighbourhood countries entities committed to investment promotion, trade facilitation and SME-networking, with a special attention to business sector representativity.
Consortia should demonstrate that they have stable and sufficient sources of financing in order to ensure the continuity of EAST-INVEST implementation and co-financing.
Consortia should demonstrate that they have experience and capacity in organising and executing large scale projects (with a size comparable to EAST-INVEST).
MINIMUM CONSORTIUM COMPOSITION
The consortium must include at least 3 members:
- two nationals of a Member State of the European Union
- one national of a Eastern Neighbourhood country (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia,
Moldova, Ukraine)
Any further partner must be a national of an EU – ENPI – IPA –EEA country or an international organisation
2.1.1 Eligibility of applicants: who may apply?
(1) In order to be eligible for a grant, applicants must:
• be legal persons, and
• be non profit making, and
• be specific types of organisations such as: relevant public administrations at national and/or regional level, international (inter-governmental) organisations as defined by Article 43 of the Implementing Rules to the EC Financial Regulation , investment promotion agencies, chambers of commerce and industry, export promotion agencies, SME representative organisations, business and/or professional associations and/or any other organisation active in the field of investment promotion, trade facilitation and/or SME-networking, and
• be registered as a legal person for more than 3 years (at submission date: 4 March 2010), and
• be nationals of:
a Member State of the European Union;
a country eligible under the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI) (Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Egypt, Georgia, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Moldova, Morocco, Palestinian Authority of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Russian Federation, Syria, Tunisia, Ukraine);
a country eligible under the Instrument of Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia- including Kosovo, Turkey,);
a Member State of the European Economic Area (Lichtenstein, Norway, Iceland), and
• be directly responsible for the preparation and management of the action with their partners, not acting as an intermediary.
(2) Potential applicants may not participate in calls for proposals or be awarded grants if they are in any of the situations which are listed in Section 2.3.3 of the Practical Guide to contract procedures for EC external actions (listed below and available from the following Internet address: http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/work/procedures/implementation/practical_guide/index_en.htm)
Exclusion situations
Applicants may not participate in the case whether
(a) they are bankrupt or being wound up, are having their affairs administered by the courts, have entered into an arrangement with creditors, have suspended business activities, are the subject of proceedings concerning those matters, or are in any analogous situation arising from a similar procedure provided for in national legislation or regulations;
(b) they have been convicted of an offence concerning their professional conduct by a judgment which has the force of res judicata; (i.e. against which no appeal is possible);
(c) they have been guilty of grave professional misconduct proven by any means which the Contracting Authority can justify;
(d) they have not fulfilled obligations relating to the payment of social security contributions or the payment of taxes in accordance with the legal provisions of the country in which they are established or with those of the country of the Contracting Authority or those of the country where the contract is to be performed;
(e) they have been the subject of a judgment which has the force of res judicata for fraud, corruption, involvement in a criminal organisation or any other illegal activity detrimental to the Communities' financial interests;
(f) they are currently subject to an administrative penalty referred to in Article 96(1) of the Financial Regulation (BUDGET)/ Article 99 of the Financial Regulation (10th EDF).
In part B section VI of the grant application form (“Declaration by the applicant”), applicants must declare that they do not fall into any of these situations.
2.1.2 Partnerships and eligibility of partners
Applicants must act with partner organisations as specified hereafter.
Applicants’ partners participate in designing and implementing the action, and the costs they incur are eligible in the same way as those incurred by the grant beneficiary. They must therefore satisfy the eligibility criteria as applicable on the grant beneficiary himself (i.e. eligibility criteria listed in section 2.1.1).
The Contracting Authority reserves the right not to award the contract to the selected Applicant in case where change would occur in the composition of the consortium between the submission of the Application and the signature of the contract.
The following are not partners and do not have to sign the “partnership statement”:
• Associates
Other organisations may be involved in the action. Such associates play a real role in the action but may not receive funding from the grant with the exception of per diem or travel costs. Associates do not have to meet the eligibility criteria referred to in section 2.1.1. The associates have to be mentioned in Part B section IV - “Associates of the Applicant participating in the Action” of the Grant Application Form.
• Subcontractors
The grant beneficiaries have the possibility to award contracts to subcontractors. Subcontractors are neither partners nor associates, and are subject to the procurement rules set out in Annex IV to the standard grant contract.
The applicant will act as the lead organisation and, if selected, as the contracting party (the "Beneficiary").
Acties/Activiteiten
Duration
The planned duration of the action is 36 months.
Sectors or themes
Sectors and themes are defined in the objectives of EAST-INVEST (see section 1.2 above). The proposed action must cover the whole of the specific objectives (section 1.2.2) and of the expected results (section 1.2.3).
The selected action shall accordingly focus on activities aiming at developing trade in the region.
Moreover, most activities shall be organised around a restricted number of priority sectors known by their international competitiveness, identified by the actors involved according to the beneficiaries needs. The project may develop sector strategies designed by relevant national and regional stakeholders involved in the project in these selected sectors.
Priority sectors will have to be identified by the partners at the beginning of the project to strengthen the cooperation at regional and sub-regional levels.
Location
EAST-INVEST is a regional project and its regional dimension should be reflected in the proposed actions.
Actions must take place in:
- 3 or more Eastern Neighbourhood country: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine
and
- 1 or more Member State of the European Union.
Punctual actions (e.g. meetings, seminars, training sessions, on-the-spot trainings) may nevertheless be carried out in countries others than the ones where the bulk of the action is implemented (e.g. country of which the Applicant/Partner(s) is national, countries neighbouring the action location). This must however remain geographically consistent with EAST-INVEST core location(s) (e.g. no actions in America or Sub-Saharan Africa).
Types of action and types of activity
The following five specific instruments, detailed below, are eligible and may be implemented in order to achieve the above results:
• SME-TECH: SME Technical Assistance Facility
• TRADE-TECH: Trade Fair Technical Assistance Facility
• EAST-MATCH: SME Business-to-Business Facility
• BUS-TECH: Business Facilitator (Operator) Technical Assistance Facility
• ORG-EXCHANGE: Institutional Exchange Facility
Other type of actions may be eligible provided that the applicant demonstrates that they are necessary and support the realisation of the proposed objectives and/or results.
Furthermore, the following four activities must be implemented:
1. the Applicant will design and implement an EAST-INVEST dissemination activity, including a quarterly newsletter, to be sent to the members of the network as well as outside the network, with relevant information on the project and on investment promotion;
2. the Applicant will create an EAST-INVEST website that will inform all stakeholders by publishing relevant databases, documents and papers produced by the project, information on investment in the region at regional and national level, information for potential investors and information on the project's activities. The organisation of workshops, conferences and other events will be supported by the intranet;
3. the Applicant will create and develop SME-SEARCH, a partner-search facility (to be encompassed by the website);
4. the Applicant will develop an EAST-INVEST Monitoring and Evaluation system.
The 5 specific instruments
SME-TECH: SME Technical Assistance Facility
The objective of SME-TECH is to provide technical assistance, including capacity building and individual consultancy, to participating SMEs in the Eastern Neighbourhood Countries, in areas which contribute to strengthening business links between SMEs in the Eastern Neighbourhood Countries as well as the Eastern Partners and EU SMEs.
SME-TECH can include actions in two main fields:
• technical assistance, including capacity building and individual consultancy, on customs regulations, market conditions;
• technical assistance, including capacity building and individual consultancy, on topics directly related to internationalisation of SMEs.
SME-TECH actions can occur both pre- and post- partnering by SMEs from Europe and the Eastern Neighbourhood Countries. An SME-TECH action can be composed of:
• A theoretical training module;
• A practical consultancy assignment.
The training and consultancy inputs should complement each other and be coherent. Theoretical and practical activities comprising a SME-TECH activity should be structured as a unit providing capacity building for the participating SMEs.
The SME-TECH activities can all take place in Europe or in the Eastern Neighbourhood Countries, or be split across the two regions.
TRADE-TECH: Trade Fair Technical Assistance Facility
The objective of a TRADE-TECH action is to stimulate initial contact between SMEs from Europe and the Eastern Neighbourhood Countries, identifying business opportunities and market potential and encouraging the SME participation in international/regional trade fair. TRADE-TECH should be considered as a prospecting instrument by SMEs in the internationalisation process.
The core TRADE-TECH activity consists in guided visits to international or regional trade fairs which are recognised as relevant to the target sector. The value added of these missions is based on the concentration of business services and pedagogical services at the same event.
EAST-MATCH: Business-to-Business Facility
The main objective of EAST-MATCH actions is to provide European and Eastern Neighbourhood Country SMEs with the appropriate environment for business meetings, accelerating their internationalisation in commerce, technology, etc.
An EAST-MATCH action comprises any of the following:
• Business meetings, including business-to-business (B2B) and follow-up meetings;
• Technical seminars;
• Technical visits.
The aim of any EAST-MATCH activity is to bring together SMEs from Europe and the Eastern Neighbourhood Countries in such a way that:
• Business meetings are held during two or three days;
• Advantage is taken of the existence of international fairs;
• Companies participate in a system of pre-arranged meetings based on quality.
BUS-TECH: Business Facilitator (Operator) Technical Assistance Facility
The main objective of BUS-TECH actions is to train associations representing the private sector in the Eastern Neighbourhood Countries (member operators of EAST-NET) with the experience and good practice available in umbrella (partner) organisations, preferably from EU. Knowledge will be shared between institutions for the mutual benefit of both the European and Eastern Neighbourhood Country business communities.
Although there are no specific topics to focus the training in a BUS-TECH action, they can be classified into two groups:
• Topics of interest on management and institutional strengthening of participating institutions, sharing management methods, experiences, good practices, etc.
• Areas that directly impact on the services provided by institutions to their members (internationalisation, training, etc.).
Participating experts/trainers/consultants may be sourced from both the EU and the Eastern Neighbourhood Countries.
ORG-EXCHANGE: Institutional Exchange Facility
The objective of this staff exchange instrument is to improve the reciprocal knowledge of participating operators, from any participating countries within EAST-INVEST, with a view to sharing work methods and therefore contributing to a lasting and effective collaboration.
The central element of the ORG-EXCHANGE instrument is the study trip to a different EAST-INVEST country, to experience and learn the day-to-day work of a similar organisation. Therefore, ORG-EXCHANGE is an effective co-operation tool in the following situations:
• Where an executive of an EAST-NET institution visits one or more operator organisations in the EU, interested in sharing knowledge, working processes, methods, etc.
• Where an executive of a EURONET institution travels to an Eastern Neighbourhood Country to learn in more detail the operations and business environment of the Eastern Country institution. In this case, the European executive will be able to share experiences from Europe and to analyse with the Eastern Neighbourhood Country counterpart how these experiences could be successfully applied in the Eastern business environment.
• ORG-EXCHANGE can also be reciprocal. One EAST-NET institution may visit a European one and in turn, the EURONET institution visits the Eastern organisation.
Additional requirements
The applicant shall ensure and prove an active and important involvement and participation of EU and Eastern Neighbourhood Region women entrepreneurs and/or of women business associations in all the project's activities.
The proposal will provide clear evidence of a long term partnership and include a set of consistent and mutually supportive targets, tasks and operations aimed at initiating a process and not just at reaching immediate results.
The respective roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders involved will be described, in addition to the mechanisms through which the activities anticipated will be discussed, adhered to, executed and monitored.
Additional measures and/or investments identified as necessary, but exceeding the amount of resources requested, may also be indicated in the proposal, in order to help clarify the potential multiplier effects of each of the initiatives concerned.
Vragen kunnen gesteld worden aan
Two information sessions will be held.
Attending the information sessions is not obligatory. Any document presented or question/answer put during the information sessions will also be made available on EuropeAid's website:
https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/europeaid/online-services/index.cfm?ADSSChck=1256902787899&do=publi.welcome&userlanguage=en
(select "search by reference", type "129289" in field "reference", click on "search")
Both information sessions will consist in:
a presentation of EAST-INVEST and of the rules applicable to EAST-INVEST Call for Proposals
a session of questions and answers.
The first information session will focus on presenting (i) EAST-INVEST background and objectives and (ii) rules applicable to EAST-INVEST Call for Proposals (e.g. eligibility, procedures, applications' evaluation).
The second information session will focus (i) on presenting EAST-INVEST background, objectives and rules, emphasising those aspects that will have been the object of clarification requests, and (ii) on practical aspects of submission of applications (e.g. preparation of the application, budget drafting principles, tips and advices).
EAST-INVEST information session 1
Thursday 3 December 2009
14h00 CET
EuropeAid: Co-operation Office
Meeting room J54 01/01
Rue Joseph II 54
1000 Brussels
Belgium
EAST-INVEST information session 2
Thursday 4 February 2010
14h00 CET
EuropeAid: Co-operation Office
Meeting room J54 01/01
Rue Joseph II 54
1000 Brussels
Belgium
Participants are invited to arrive by 13h45 at the latest in order to check their registration and to obtain a security pass allowing accessing the meeting room.
Registration procedure and number of representatives
Participation to the information sessions is limited to 2 representatives per legal entity.
Prior registration is obligatory before 30 November 2009 (session 1) or 01 February 2010 (session 2) and should be made by e-mail or fax, mentioning "participation in the information session" in the subject field, to:
E-mail: Europeaid-east-invest@ec.europa.eu
Fax: +32-2-29 79731
2. Questions
Questions may in addition be sent by e-mail or by fax no later than 21 days before the deadline for the submission of applications (i.e. not later than 11 February 2010) to the below address, indicating clearly the reference of the call for proposals:
E-mail: Europeaid-east-invest@ec.europa.eu
Fax: +32-2-29 79731
Contracting Authority has no obligation to provide further clarifications after this date.
Replies will be given no later than 11 days before the deadline for the submission of applications (i.e. no later than 21 February 2010).
In the interest of equal treatment of applicants, the Contracting Authority cannot give a prior opinion on the eligibility of an applicant, a partner, an action or specific activities.
Questions that may be relevant to other applicants, together with the answers, will be published on the internet on EuropeAid's website:
https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/europeaid/online-services/index.cfm?ADSSChck=1256902787899&do=publi.welcome&userlanguage=en
(select "search by reference", type "129289" in field "reference", click on "search")
It is therefore highly recommended to regularly consult the abovementioned website in order to be informed of the questions and answers published.
Alle relevante documenten en informatie van deze call zijn beschikbaar op: https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/europeaid/online-services/index.cfm?ADSSChck=1246626693376&do=publi.welcome - Klik 'Search by Reference', nr. 129289
De richtlijnen van deze call bevinden zich in bijlage.
