Local Authorities in Development (25 februari 2010)

There are three sets of eligibility criteria, relating to:
· applicants which may request a grant (2.1.1), and their partners (2.1.2),
· actions for which a grant may be awarded (2.1.3),
· types of cost which may be taken into account in setting the amount of the grant (2.1.4).

(1) In order to be eligible for a grant, applicants must:
Objective 1-Actions in partner countries (multi-country)
· be Local Authorities (LA) or associations of Local Authorities13 from a Member State of the
European Union or from one of the partner countries in which the action will take place,
constituted in accordance with the legislation in force in the country concerned and
· be directly responsible for the preparation and management of the action with their partners, not
acting as an intermediary
Objectives 2 and 3- Public awareness of development issues and education for development in
Europe/Coordination and networking in Europe
· be Local Authorities (LA) or associations of Local Authorities constituted in accordance with the
legislation in force in the country concerned and
· be nationals of a Member State of the EU
· 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 (available at the address indicated at the beginning of section 2).
In part A, section III of the grant application form (“Declaration by the applicant”), applicants must
declare that they do not fall into any of those situations.
2.1.2 Partnerships and eligibility of partners
Partnerships
Given the nature of this programme and its multi-actor approach, working in partnership is essential
for the success of the actions.
Objective 1 – Actions in partner countries (multi-country)
All actions must be based on an initiative of local LAs or LA associations in the partner countries
where the actions will take place and should ensure their involvement at every stage of the
implementation of the action so that there is local ownership of the project from the identification
stage on.
For actions presented by European LAs or LA associations, partnership with local actors (at
least one LA or LA association in each of the partner countries where the proposed action will take place) is obligatory, and it must be clearly demonstrated that the project responds to an
initiative of at least one of these local partners.
Actions presented by LAs from a partner country must be carried out in close cooperation with
partners established in the other partner country/countries where the action will take place.
Apart from the above requirements, more than one European partner (LA and/or NSA) may participate
in any given action. Equally, there may be more than one partner organisation (LA and/or NSA) in the
individual partner countries in which the action will take place.
Objectives 2 and 3 - Raising public awareness of development issues and education for
development in Europe/Coordination and networking
For actions in more than one EU Member State, partnerships with at least one LA or LA association in
each of the partner countries where the proposed action will take place is obligatory.
Eligibility of partners (Objectives 1, 2 and 3)
Applicants’ partners should participate in the design and implementation of the action, and the costs
they incur are eligible in the same way as those incurred by the grant beneficiary.
LAs or LA associations must therefore satisfy the same eligibility criteria as applicants.
For objective 2, whereas LAs (or associations of Las) from partner countries are not eligible as
applicant, they can participate as partners.
Non State-Actors14 may also be partners. They must:
· be legal persons15, and
· be non-profit making, and
· be nationals16 of a Member State of the EU or (for objective 1 and 2) of one of the partner
countries in which the action will take place and
Furthermore, in the framework of objective 1, in duly justified cases and if necessary in the interest of
the action, Ministries (notably Ministries of Health or Education or decentralised departments of
these Ministries) may also act as local partners. However, for actions presented by European actors,
local Ministries may never be the only partner for an action. Given their status, there are no other
specific eligibility criteria for Ministries and no supporting documents have to be supplied (see section
2.4.)
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 (see annex F).
The applicant will act as the lead organisation and, if selected, as the contracting party (the
"Beneficiary").