(06 February 2020) – The Commission decided to launch two new pilot actions to involve citizens more when rolling out cohesion projects on the ground.
The aim is to support active involvement of citizens and civil society organisations in the way the EU funds are planned, invested and monitored, to ultimately ensure better results.
Under these pilot actions, managing authorities of the Cohesion funds and civil society organisations will receive expert advice and support to develop the necessary knowledge and skills for rolling out the cohesion projects.
Under the first pilot action, authorities managing EU funds will receive top class expertise from the OECD and tailored assistance in setting up new initiatives to involve citizens and promote transparency and accountability. The call for managing authorities who want to participate in this initiative is open as of today.
Under the second pilot action, the Commission will set aside €250,000 in “grassroots” financing to support innovative ideas and initiatives for promoting citizen engagement coming from smaller and local civil society organisations in particular. The call for organisations to submit ideas will be opened in the next weeks.