Frequently Asked Questions
General questions
Eligible border regions are land and maritime, with fixed link, border regions of the 27 EU countries and EFTA countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland). Border regions are the NUTS level 2 and 3 regions.
The list of NUTS level 2 and 3 regions along internal EU and EFTA borders can be accessed here.
On cross-border crisis management, helpful publications are the following ones:
– European Commission, 2024, Strengthening the resilience of EU border regions. Mapping risks & crisis management tools and identifying gaps (written by Technopolis Group, CMCC, and Nordregio), which can be accesses here;
– European Commission, 2021, The effects of COVID-19 induced border closures on cross-border regions, an empirical report covering the period March to June 2020, realised by MOT;
– European Commission, 2022, Analysis of the impact of border-related measures taken by Member States in the fight against COVID-19, realised by MOT. Both can be accessed here.
On spatial planning, the following publication offers many insights:
– OECD and European Commission, 2024, Cross-border Governance Framework and Tool, accessible here.
All types of crises are covered with the call. Here are some examples:
· meteorological and hydrological crisis: for example, floods, tsunami, droughts;
· geohazards like natural disasters, forest fires, etc.;
· biological crises: epidemics/pandemics, animal and plant diseases;
· technological crises such as disruption of critical infrastructures, nuclear and radiological accidents;
· societal crises like mass displacement of people (migration), terrorism, security issues, cyber threats.
Cross-border spatial planning can help align development plans of local authorities, departments or regions of two or more adjacent bordering territories.
Depending on the level of cooperation that already exists between you and your partner(s), you can decide to devise the action that is most needed in your area: whether it is about initiating joint plans for spatial planning of a specific area or preparing an agreement to set up a joint public service.
Common phases of cross-border spatial planning include in the long run: the definition of the purpose and scope of cross-border cooperation; the establishment of cross-border governance bodies; the adoption and implementation of strategic planning documents; relationship-building, knowledge-building, and implementation of cross-border initiatives through information sharing; the provision of cross-border public services; monitoring and evaluation of cross-border governance, actions and development trends; ensuring sustainable and adaptable funding for cross-border governance bodies and projects; political commitment to and support for cross-border cooperation initiatives.
The selected beneficiaries receive sub-grants from MOT and AEBR to implement the pilot actions. The sub-grants amount to a maximum of 40,000 euros per pilot action.
There is no requirement for co-financing.
The sub-grants are intended to reimburse eligible actual costs incurred by the beneficiary(ies) for the implementation of the pilot actions, and include an overhead of indirect costs up to a maximum of 7%
of the direct costs.
More details of eligible costs and activities can be found under the FAQs on implementation here below.
Yes, applicants can also present a budget for more than 40,000 euros. However, the grant will not be higher than 40,000 euros. Additional costs are to be covered with the applicant’s own resources – no other EU funding should be used to the pilot action though.
The budget will need to indicate what costs are to be covered with the grant and which will be covered with own resources. The beneficiary will be requested to provide AEBR and MOT documentation to prove costs covered by the grant only.
You can use the sub-grant to organise activities that are helpful to set up a join plan for cross-border crisis management or joint actions for cross-border spatial planning. Activities to be financed include:
– the preparation of a plan, including implementing a study, roadmap, memorandum, draft agreement, protocol, an inventory/database (data collection), testing phase/experiments, etc.
– networking activities necessary to broker the plan, including: organising consultations, study/field visits, meetings, workshops, etc.
– promotion efforts to enhance the visibility and appeal of the plan, including: disseminating and promoting the pilot action through communication campaigns, modules, etc.
Beneficiaries are expected to prepare a joint cross-border plan: for crisis management under lot 1, and for spatial planning under lot 2.
The aim of the pilot actions is to explore possibilities to plan jointly with competent authorities from the whole cross-border territory, to facilitate cross-border governance for crisis management and spatial planning and to generate contacts, information sharing and proceedings. To sustain these efforts, the European Commission provides financial support to enable such initiatives.
Yes, it is feasible, because the final deliverable is the plan. However, the plans are not expected to be officially adopted by the participating regions, nor agreements must be signed by the end of implementation period if the proposal envisages the preparation of an agreement.
For questions concerning lot 1, Crisis Management, please contact our team at the AEBR at crisis-management@aebr.eu.
For questions concerning lot 2, Spatial Planning, please contact our team at the MOT at spatialplanning@mot.asso.fr.
Please take a look at the additional contact details here.
The final deadline for the submission of the application form is 30 November 2024 at 6 pm CET.
Partners do not necessarily have to make a financial commitment, payments can be managed by one partner only. In fact, the financial support will be transferred to one partner only. The partners can then autonomously decide how to share costs and contributions.
In this sense, the partner’s declaration is intended to be a commitment to participate in the implementation of the pilot action and an acknowledgement of the application in which the partner itself is involved. The partner declaration does not make any reference to financial contributions nor participation by the partner.
Application
Public bodies at national, regional and local level with mandate on a territory that limits a national boundary are eligible.
To ensure a sustainable impact of the action, applicants should be relevant actors with clear mandate for one of the concerned policies: either for cross-border cooperation, crisis management (lot 1) or spatial planning (lot 2).
Unfortunately not, having legal personality is a prerequisite for eligibility.
Cross-border legal entities should be registered as one legal person in one of the participating countries and set up according to its laws. Regional and local authorities from all participating countries should be involved in the cross-border structure.
Yes, if the collaborating regions are linked with a fix connection like a bridge or a tunnel and cross-border interaction may effectively take place.
For public bodies, yes: to ensure that measures are taken in a cross-border setting, the application must involve at least two partners, one from each side of the national border.
Cross-border entities with legal personality and with the participation of regional and local authorities from all participating countries do not need a partner to apply because their cross-border setting is already ensured in their status.
Partners, however, do not necessarily need to participate in the budget.
In the application, you will need to indicate:
-a title of the pilot action to be developed;
-data on the partners;
-description of the pilot action’s specific objective;
-description of the planned methodology to implement the pilot action;
–calendar of the proposed activities;
–budget necessary to develop the pilot action with a justification of each activity.
Template for the calendar and the budget are provided and accessible here.
Applications are to be submitted via the dedicated online form that you can find here.
E-Mail applications or paper-based ones will not be accepted nor evaluated.
You must apply in English.
Should you want to prepare the application in your native language, you can use the eTranslation Tool provided by the European Commission to translate the final version in English. Access for free the eTranslation Tool here.
Yes, you can submit an application to both lots, with a proposal for a plan for cross-border crisis management and a proposals for an action for cross-border spatial planning.
Two separate applications should be submitted, each with a fully developed proposal. Similarly, costs and activities must be clearly separated.
Yes, you can download the application form in PDF and Word format for internal use. You will find the copies in the folder with the templates accessible on the “Call for Proposals” page and here (updated on 25 Noovember 2024).
Implementation
The pilot actions must be implemented between February and September 2025.
Beneficiaries will autonomously decide how to use the sub-grant they receive, a tentative budget must be planned in advance and submitted with the application. The sub-grants can be used to finance following activities and expenditures:
– Sub-contracting cost for the action (for example for procurement of external services and expertise);
– Travel and accommodation costs for the people involved in the pilot action, including the corresponding per diem;
– Purchase of services and equipment for the implementation of the pilot action, including: interpretation, catering, communication for meetings and events, translations, preparation of communication outputs;
– Staff costs on the basis of real costs, based on the number of working hours that the beneficiary’s employees need for implementation of the pilot action;
– An overhead of indirect costs up to a maximum of 7% of the direct costs.
Yes, we will ask you that the following conditions will be filled to finance staff cost with the grant:
– A beneficiary can report the hours of an employee working under an employment contract or equivalent.
– A beneficiary cannot declare more than 1,147 hours per full time employee per calendar year. This maximum number of hours is reduced to a pro- rata of 1,147 hours for employees working part-time. If the same employee works on several projects, the sum of productive hours declared for the employee in these projects cannot exceed 1,147 hours or the applicable pro-rata per calendar year.
– A beneficiary can report only actual (productive) hours that were worked and that were dedicated to project related tasks. Non-productive hours relating to holidays, sick leave, maternity leave, etc. are not eligible.
– Beneficiaries will have to deliver to AEBR (lot 1) or MOT (lot 2) an employment confirmation and reports of hours confirming the number of hours worked for the pilot action for each person for whom they report staff costs.
– The expenditure is essential for the pilot action’s implementation and would not have been incurred if the pilot action had not been carried out (value added);
– The expenditure must comply with the principles of efficiency, economy and effectiveness, and therefore the resources used in the pursuit of the beneficiary’s activities will be made available in due time, in appropriate quantity and quality, and at the best price‑quality ratio (principle of economy); beneficiaries ensure the best relationship between the resources employed, the activities undertaken and the achievement of objectives (principle of efficiency); the objectives that the project partners pursued are achieved through the activities undertaken (principle of effectiveness);
– The expenditure is generated and paid by the beneficiary during the eligible pilot action phase (February – September 2025);
– No other EU funds have contributed towards the financing of the same expenditure (prohibition of double funding);
– Relevant public procurement rules are observed.
Yes, we will ask you to prove costs reported with:
– procurement documentation;
– invoices (or equivalent accounting documents);
– proof of delivery of services;
– payment proof.
Public procurement rules of the national legislations of the applicants apply for the management of the pilot action.
Partners will be autonomous in the implementation of their pilot action. However, for questions and support you can always contact AEBR or MOT.
To follow up on the implementation, beneficiaries will submit two short reports in the form of a survey: the mid-term report is due by the fifth month of implementation (end of June 2025) and the final report one month after closure of the pilot action (end of October 2025).
Beneficiaries will receive a survey from AEBR or MOT in due time fill in the mid-term and final report.
Selection
If AEBR and MOT deem your application eligible, a panel of external experts will carry out the assessment of the content. The European Commission will validate the final selection.
Yes, all applicants will be informed. To ensure equal treatment of all applicants, each one will receive their assessment sheet whether or not they were successful. The assessment sheet will detail the outcomes of the panel.
No, they are not.
Yes, there is. After the assessment by the experts’ panel, AEBR and MOT will submit an evaluation report to the European Commission to finalise the selection.
The European Commission may request AEBR, MOT and the experts’ panel to further justify the scorings attributed to any of the proposals.
The successful cases will be selected in December 2024 and notified then.
Selection criteria
Relevance means that the proposal is going to be assessed for its capacity to leverage existing efforts in the field of the application (crisis management or spatial planning) and implement an action that is important for the specific territory. The single elements that constitute its relevance are the following ones:
