Subject: Invitation to submit proposals – Call for proposals No ECHO/SUB/2016/

Ref.: Legal acts: Council Decision 1313/2013/EU of 17/12/2013 and Work Programme C(2015)8381 of 30/11/2015

Title: Union Civil Protection Mechanism Exercises

Questions and Answers to the Call for proposals

Date / Question / Answer
10/03/2016 / Is it possible for a public or non-public (NGO) entity to participate in the exercise and to be reimbursed for travel and other subsistence costs for planning meetings and the actual exercise (through the coordinating beneficiary) without being a beneficiary? / As long as an eligible entity participates in the exercise with operational assets and personnel, this entity is automatically regarded as a coordinating beneficiary if the cost for the participation is included in the budget. It is important to underline that the European Commission does not instruct the partners of a consortium on how to organise their finances for the project as long as it is being done within the framework of the grant agreement. As such, the coordinating beneficiary may cover all the costs covered by the Commission (normally 15% of the total costs, or it can be shared between the partners in the consortium).
Could they also be reimbursed for the time they invest in the project, for instance during planning meetings and the exercise? / All the beneficiaries may submit personnel costs. This is duly explained in the grant application guide which you will find on the ECHO website.
Alternatively, could this time be regarded as in kind contributions and part of the 15% co-funding? / No.
In the case that exercise participants may be reimbursed without being beneficiaries and in the case that two of these come from other countries than the coordinating beneficiary – could they be counted as entities “from at least two other member states” as mentioned in the section on “eligible activities”? / They may, in some cases, be reimbursed, but in order to be qualified as an entity, they also have to participate in the exercise. Participation in field exercises must be in the form of operational assets (modules or teams). As such, experts or observers cannot be counted as entities.
10/03/2016 / Is the EU agency EMSA an eligible partner? / Yes, but it cannot count as an entity.
10/03/2016 / Is Russia an eligible partner? / No.
17/03/2016 / An exercise project should be established under the internal or the external budget item. An exercise under the external budget item should benefit to a very large extend only the third country. In our case Belarus: the main part of the project will be in Belarus. However, it would be logical to extend the exercise across the EU-border and partly have exercises, i.e. Command Post Exercises in which Participating States and states outside the Mechanism exercise at the same time. Of course the Field exercise is executed in Belarus.
Is it possible to make a proposal under one of the budget items that will include cross EU-border activities? And if so, does it affect the rating of a proposal. If not, is it possible to propose two separate projects (internal and external) and if they are both granted to melt the two projects in one? / A proposal on the external budget line shall first of all benefit the third country. This does, however, not imply that there can be absolutely no activities outside this third country. However, the field exercise, some of the planning meetings and the evaluation conference should be organised in this third country. It is also not a problem to have a CPX with participation from Participating States of the Mechanism. It is rather strength. It is, however, not possible to send an application for one project on both budget lines. You will have to cross out one in form A1, and in this case it seems clear to the Commission that it has to be the external budget line.
25/03/2016 / Are entities in Participating States such as NGOs and Private Companies (Red Cross National Societies) considered eligible to be coordinating beneficiaries, or does it only apply to national competent authorities? / The conditions for participation as Coordinating Beneficiary for national (e.g. Red Cross National Society) and international organisation (e.g. IFRC) are different as stipulated in the eligibility criteria mentioned below. The A8 form would be required for all entities except for international organisations:
In order to be eligible for a grant, applicants must:
Be established in one of the 33 European Civil Protection Mechanism Participating States, which are the 28 EU members, Iceland, Norway, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia.
Involve the national competent authority and/or the marine pollution authorities depending on the exercise scenario of both Participating States of the mechanism and eligible third countries. With their proposals, applicants must enclose supporting documents (form A8) showing that they comply with the above requirement before submitting the proposal to the Commission. This does not apply to international organisations.
The Coordinating Beneficiary submits the application for funding and is the single point of contact for the Commission. It is the only beneficiary to report directly to the Commission on the exercise project’s technical and financial progress. It receives the Union financial contribution and ensures its distribution. The Coordinating Beneficiary must be involved in the technical implementation of the exercise project it cannot act, in the context of the project, as a sub-contractor to one of its beneficiaries.
19/04/2016 / Where can the application form be found? / The application forms, guide and some answers and questions can be found on the following site: http://ec.europa.eu/echo/node/4371
02/05/2016 / Is it possible for one partner to participate in two separate proposals to the same call? The activities would be performed in different years. / This is possible as long as the partner is deemed to have the operational and financial capacity to perform its role in both proposals.
02/05/2016 / Must affiliated partners be identified with the same detail as associated beneficiaries and with relevant Form A documents? / Form A1: You should clearly mark the official name of the affiliated entity and which beneficiary it is affiliated to. The affiliation should be confirmed by reference to official documents establishing the affiliated entity (ies); an extract from said documents must be attached to the form.
Form A2 through which either 1) the beneficiary to which the affiliated entity is affiliated confirms that the entity is not in any of the exclusion situations, or 2) the affiliated entity itself signs the form.
T forms, specifically identifying the tasks to be carried out by the affiliated entity.
F forms, specifically identifying the cost to be incurred by the affiliated entity.
02/05/2016 / Does a deliverable have to be a written report, or can it be the successful completion of a major project activity? / Please refer to page 49 of the guide stating: "A deliverable may be a report, or activities such as training or exercising, organisation of a conference and production of proceedings, publication of a book, manual of work procedures, software, videos, etc."