Call for projects on the fight against Firearms Trafficking - ISFP-2017-AG-FIRE

Date de clôture : 30 janv. 2018  
APPEL À PROJET CLÔTURÉ

1. INTRODUCTION

Article 67(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) declares as the European Union’s objective ensuring a high level of security within an area of freedom, security and justice.

To achieve this objective, enhanced actions at European Union level should be taken to protect people and goods from increasingly transnational threats and to support the work carried out by Member States’ competent authorities. Terrorism, organised crime, itinerant crime, drug trafficking, corruption, cybercrime, trafficking in human beings and arms, inter alia, continue to challenge the internal security of the Union.

The Internal Security Strategy for the European Union (Internal Security Strategy), adopted by the Council in February 2010, constituted a shared agenda for tackling these common security challenges and identified the following relevant strategic objectives for 2010-2014: to disrupt international crime networks, to prevent terrorism and address radicalisation and recruitment, to raise levels of security for citizens and businesses in cyberspace and to increase Europe’s resilience in the face of crises and disasters.

To promote the implementation of the Internal Security Strategy and to ensure that it becomes an operational reality, the Internal Security Fund (ISF Police) was set up.

In April 2015 the European Commission adopted the European Agenda on Security (EAS) for the coming five years, which builds on the actions undertaken under the previous Internal Security Strategy, thus ensuring consistent and continued action. The EAS represents an effective and coordinated response at European level to new and complex threats and sets out how the European Union can bring added value to support the Member States in ensuring security. It has identified the following three priorities: tackling terrorism and preventing radicalisation, disrupting organised crime and fighting cybercrime.

On the basis of the EAS, the Council adopted in June 2015 the renewed European Union Internal Security Strategy 2015-2020 confirming tackling and preventing terrorism, radicalisation to terrorism and recruitment as well as financing related to terrorism, preventing and fighting serious and organised crime and preventing and fighting cybercrime as the main priorities for European Union's actions.

Legal basis of ISF Police are the following regulations:

- Regulation (EU) No 513/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 establishing the Instrument for financial support for police cooperation, preventing and combating crime, and crisis management (OJ L 150 of 20 May 2014);

- Regulation (EU) No 514/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 laying down general provisions on the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund and on the instrument for financial support for police cooperation, preventing and combating crime, and crisis management (OJ L 150 of 20 May 2014).

The ISF Police Regulation (EU) No 513/2014 sets out the following two specific objectives:

1. crime prevention, combating cross-border, serious and organised crime including terrorism, and reinforcing coordination and cooperation between law enforcement authorities and other national authorities of Member States, including with Europol or other relevant Union bodies, and with relevant third countries and international organisations;

2. enhancing the capacity of Member States and the Union for managing effectively security-related risks and crises, and preparing for and protecting people and critical infrastructure against terrorist attacks and other security-related incidents.

In conformity with Regulation (EU) No 514/2014 Article 6.2, in order to implement the ISF Police, the Commission has adopted, on 27 September 2017, the 2017 Annual Work Programme for Union actions1, which includes this Call for Proposals.

Background:

Recent terrorist attacks have brought attention on how organised criminals are able to access and trade firearms in Europe, even military-grade firearms, in large numbers. The decision on who can hold a firearm and when they can be used is a societal choice for Member States. In order to address obstacles to controls and police cooperation, on proposal of the Commission, the European Parliament and the Council adopted in May 2017 the revised Firearms Directive2 to better control the acquisition and possession of weapons and prevent criminals and terrorists from accessing the most dangerous military- grade weapons. The revised legislation includes provisions to improve the sharing of information (e.g. by uploading information on seized firearms in Europol’s information system), to reinforce traceability, to standardise marking, and to establish common standards for neutralising firearms. The Commission is also making an in-depth evaluation of the Regulation governing import and export of firearms which implement Article 10 of the UN Firearms Protocol and it has launched the proceeding for the revision of this Regulation.

Trafficking of firearms has a critical external dimension, given that many illegal firearms in the EU have been imported from neighbouring countries where large stockpiles of military weapons remain. The recent operational action plan with the Western Balkans should be implemented to the full and be replicated with other neighbouring countries, namely in the Middle East and North Africa, as well as Ukraine.

 

2. PRIORITIES OF THIS CALL FOR PROPOSALS

The present Call for Proposals aims at funding projects in the area of the fight against firearms trafficking. The main priority of the call is to enhance operational cooperation between EU Member States or EU Member States and third countries located along firearms trafficking routes to and from the EU, such as East and South East Europe and Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries, notably by supporting joint initiatives on knowledge, detection, investigation and prosecution of firearms trafficking.

Project applications submitted under the present Call for Proposals must be aiming to achieve at least one of the following outcomes:

• to facilitate joint initiatives and operational actions between EU Member States and third countries from East and South East Europe and/or the MENA countries;

• to improve expertise in the area of firearms trafficking, in particular by enhancing knowledge, detection, investigation and prosecution at EU level and with key third countries;

• to promote best practices inter alia concerning the defragmentation of the relevant information and intelligence along the firearms trafficking routes to and from the EU;

• to safeguard the EU licit market in the field of firearms trafficking;

• to reduce diversion of firearms into criminal hands in the EU.

Any action under this Call for Proposal shall respect and shall be in line with the EU Action Plan on firearms and explosives adopted on the 2nd of December 2015, COM (2015) 624 final and with the European Agenda on Security (EAS) adopted by the European Commission in April 2015.

Any action under this Call for Proposals shall respect and shall be implemented in line with the rights and principles enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. Applications should pay appropriate attention to the effects of the project on individual rights and freedoms, as well as to possible remedies. In addition, any action under this Call for Proposals should comply with all relevant ethical principles and all applicable international, EU and national law on ethical issues while carrying out the project.

 

3. TIMETABLE

a) Publication of the call

18/10/2017

 

b) Deadline for submitting applications

30/01/2018 – 17:00 Brussels time

 

c) Evaluation period

February – May 2018

 

d) Information to applicants

June 2018

 

 e) Signature of Grant Agreement

September 2018

 

f) Starting date of the action

October 2018

 

4. BUDGET AVAILABLE
The total budget earmarked for the co-financing of projects is estimated at EUR 3 000

000 (three million euros).
The Commission reserves the right not to distribute all the funds available.

 

5. ADMISSIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

Applications must be sent no later than the deadline for submitting applications referred to in section 3.

Applications must be submitted using the Electronic Submission System of the Participant Portal originally developed for the Horizon 2020 Research programmes.

Applications must be submitted using the standard Submission Form Part A and Part B. They must include all the mandatory information and be accompanied (if applicable) by the Audit Report3 Annexes.

Applications must be drafted in one of the EU official languages. English is preferred in order to speed up the evaluation procedure.

Projects cannot be scheduled to last more than 24 months.4 Applications for projects scheduled to run for a longer period will be rejected.

Failure to comply with these requirements will lead to the rejection of the application.

 

6. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

6.1. Eligible applicants and applications

In order to be eligible for a grant, the Applicant and the Co-applicants must be:

1. a)  legal persons; applications from natural persons are not eligible;

2. b)  a public body, a non-profit-making private entity or an international organisation5. An international organisation can only be a Co-applicant;

3. c)  established in a Member State of the European Union participating in the ISF Police instrument6. The lead Applicant must be established in a Member State participating in the ISF Police instrument. International organisations may be established outside the EU Member States participating in the ISF Police instrument. In duly justified cases, the Co-applicants may also be established in the following third countries: Ukraine, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia Herzegovina, Albania, Kosovo, FYROM, Tunisia, Lebanon, Jordan, Algeria, Morocco and Egypt.

In order to be eligible for a grant, applications must be:

1. a)  transnational, i.e. involving at least 2 entities established in 2 different Member States participating in the ISF Police instrument7;

2. b)  seeking EU co-funding equal to or more than EUR 250.000.

3. c)  activities must not have started prior to the date of submission of the grant application.

Union agencies can be neither Applicants nor Co-applicants.

Affiliated entities, i.e. legal entities having a legal or capital link with Applicants, shall take part in the action as individual Co-applicants in order to declare eligible costs.

To prove these eligibility requirements, Applicants and Co-applicants will have to provide the relevant information and upload necessary documents showing their legal status in the Beneficiary Register. The information needs to be provided before the submission deadline.

6.2. Eligible activities

The following types of activities are eligible under this Call for Proposals:

a) projects promoting networking, public-private partnerships, mutual confidence, understanding and learning, identification and dissemination of best practices and innovative approaches at Union level, training and exchange programmes;

b) projects supporting the development of methodological, notably statistical, tools and methods and common indicators;

c) the acquisition, maintenance and/or further upgrading of technical equipment, expertise, secure facilities, infrastructures, related buildings and systems, especially ICT systems and their components at the Union level, including for the purpose of European cooperation on cyber security and cybercrime, notably the European Cybercrime Centre;

d) particularly innovative projects developing new methods and/or deploying new technologies with a potential for transferability to other Member States, especially projects aiming at testing and validating the outcome of Union funded security research projects;

e) studies and pilot projects.

For actions in relation to and in third countries the following types of activities are eligible under this Call for Proposals:

a) actions improving police cooperation and coordination between law enforcement authorities and, where applicable, international organisations, including joint investigation teams and any other form of cross-border joint operation, access to and exchange of information and interoperable technologies;

b) networking, mutual confidence, understanding and learning, identification, exchange and dissemination of know-how, experience and best practice, information sharing, shared situation awareness and foresight, contingency planning and interoperability;

c) acquisition, maintenance, and/or further upgrading of technical equipment, including ICT systems and their components;

d) exchange, training and education of staff and experts of relevant authorities, including language training;

e) threat, risk and impact assessments; f) studies and pilot projects

 

7. EXCLUSION CRITERIA

Applicants will be excluded from participating in the Call for Proposals procedure and from the grant award if they are in any of the situations referred to in articles 131(4) of the EU Financial Regulation8, i.e. one of the following situations:

7.1. Exclusion from participation in the Call for Proposals

(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;

2. (b)  they or persons having powers of representation, decision making or control over them have been convicted of an offence concerning their professional conduct by a judgment of a competent authority of a Member State which has the force of res judicata;

3. (c)  they have been guilty of grave professional misconduct proven by any means which the contracting authority can justify including by decisions of the EIB and international organisations;

4. (d)  they are not in compliance with their 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 Belgium or those of the country where the action is to be implemented;

5. (e)  they or persons having powers of representation, decision making or control over them have been the subject of a judgment which has the force of res judicata for fraud, corruption, involvement in a criminal organisation, money laundering or any other illegal activity, where such an illegal activity is detrimental to the Union's financial interests;

6. (f)  they are currently subject to an administrative penalty for: being guilty of misrepresentation in supplying the information required by the Commission as a condition of participation in a procurement or grant award procedure or for failing to supply this information; or having been declared to be in serious breach of its obligations under grant agreements or contracts financed by the Union's budget.

7.2. Exclusion from award

Applicants will not be granted financial assistance if, in the course of the grant award procedure, they:

1. (a)  are subject to a conflict of interest in connection with the action;

2. (b)  are guilty of misrepresentation in supplying the information required by the Commission as a condition of participation in the grant award procedure or fail to supply this information;

3. (c)  find themselves in one of the situations of exclusion, referred to in section 7.1.

Administrative and financial penalties may be imposed on Applicants and Co-applicants who are guilty of misrepresentation.

 

8. SELECTION CRITERIA

8.1. Financial capacity

Applicants and Co-applicants must have stable and sufficient sources of funding to maintain their activity throughout the period during which the action is being carried out and to participate in its funding. Organisations participating in several projects shall have sufficient financial capacity to implement multiple projects.

Financial capacity check will be performed by the Research Executive Agency (REA). It will be assessed in line with the requirements of the Financial Regulation (EC) No 966/2012.

The documents that will be requested when assessing the financial capacity include (1) the profit and loss account and (2) the balance sheet for the last financial year for which the accounts were closed. For newly created entities the business plan may replace the above documents.

The financial documents must be uploaded in the Beneficiary Register when uploading the application package.

In case of low financial capacity, the Commission may decide the following:

• -  request further documents;

• -  request budget modifications / reallocations of costs;

• -  introduce interim payments based on interim reports;

• -  modify pre-financing percentage.
  In case of insufficient financial capacity, the Commission may decide the following:

• -  request a change of Co-applicant;

• -  reject the application.
  Financial Capacity assessment will not be carried out if:

• -  the Applicant or Co-applicant is a public body or an international organisation;

• -  the EU contribution requested by the Applicant or Co-applicant is ≤ EUR 60 000.

  If the share of a grant requested by an organisation (Applicant or Co-applicant) exceeds EUR 750 000, this organisation must also provide an audit report produced by an approved external auditor certifying its accounts for the last closed financial year. This provision shall not apply to public bodies or to international organisations.

8.2. Operational capacity

Applicants and Co-applicants must have the professional competencies as well as appropriate qualifications necessary to complete the proposed action. This capacity shall be assessed based on the experience of the Applicants and each Co-applicant or, as an alternative, on the relevant experience of their directly involved employees.

As evidence, the following information must be provided in the Submission Form Part B of the proposal:

• -  general profiles (qualifications and experiences) of the staff primary responsible for managing and implementing the proposed action to be described under point 5.1.3,

• -  a description of the partnership in the context of the proposed action to be provided under point 5.1.1.

The operational capacity assessment is not applicable to public bodies and international organisations.

 

9. AWARD CRITERIA

Eligible applications and their proposed action will be assessed on the basis of the following award criteria:

Award Criteria

1. Relevance

Maximum Points 30

Threshold 21

2. Quality of the project

Maximum Points 20

-

3. Cost effectiveness

Maximum Points 20

-

4. European added value

Maximum Points 20

-

5. Expected results, dissemination, sustainability and long-term impact

Maximum Points 10

-

TOTAL

Maximum Points 100

Threshold 65

 

 

Evaluation Step 1:

• Relevance: applications will be assessed on the extent to which they match the priorities and expected outcomes as identified in this Call for Proposals (section 2 above) and in the relevant EU strategic documents and/or action plans (section 1 above), and on whether the expected impact will be significant on the selected priority(ies) (30 points).

Applications receiving less than 21 points for the "relevance" criterion will not be evaluated further, i.e. will not go to Evaluation Step 2.

Evaluation Step 2:

• Quality: applications will be assessed with regards to the appropriateness of their design and planned implementation, taking into account the envisaged activities, methodology, organisation of work and strategy for project management, evaluation and dissemination (20 points);

• Cost-effectiveness: applications will be assessed with regards to whether the costs of the proposed action are adequate to the activities and proportionate to the expected results (20 points);

• European added value: the project activities, outcomes and impact should have a broad EU relevance; applications will be assessed on whether a suitable number of countries is involved in the project activities and on whether the expected impact will concern a significant number of countries (20 points);

• Expected results, dissemination, sustainability and long-term impact. (10 points). Applications that pass the threshold of minimum 65 points will be considered for funding within the limits of the available budget.

 

10. LEGAL COMMITMENTS

The award of each grant is subject to the conclusion of a Grant Agreement in writing.

The coordinators of projects proposed for funding will be invited to engage in a grant agreement preparation process, which will be carried out via an online IT system (SYGMA). If successful, it will conclude with the signature of a Grant Agreement, drawn up in euro and detailing the conditions and level of funding.

The Grant Agreement must be signed electronically first by the coordinator on behalf of the consortium and then by the European Commission. All co-beneficiaries must accede to the Grant Agreement by signing electronically the accession form to the grant.

Please note, that if international organisations are involved in the application, no other specific clauses applicable to international organisations than the ones already included in the Model Grant Agreement will be added.

Please note that the award of a grant does not establish any entitlement for subsequent years.

 

 

11. FINANCIAL PROVISIONS

11.1 General Principles

a)
An action may only receive one grant from the EU budget.

Non-cumulative award In no circumstances shall the same costs be financed twice by the Union budget. To ensure this, applicants shall indicate the sources and amounts of Union funding received or applied for the same action or part of the action or for its functioning during the same financial year as well as any other funding received or applied for the same action (Submission Form Part B, section 6).

b) Non-retroactivity

No grant may be awarded retrospectively for actions already completed. A grant may be awarded for an action which has already begun only where the Applicant can demonstrate the need to start the action before the Grant Agreement is signed. In any case, costs eligible for financing may not have been incurred prior to the date of submission of the grant application.

c) Co-financing

Co-financing means that the resources which are necessary to carry out the action may not be entirely provided by the EU grant.

Co-financing of the action may take the form of:

 

the Beneficiary's own resources,
income generated by the action, financial contributions from third parties.

Balanced budget

The Budget Estimate of the action is to be included in the Application Form. It must have revenue and expenditure in balance and must be drawn up in euro.

Beneficiaries with general accounts in a currency other than the euro shall convert costs incurred in another currency into euro at the average of the daily exchange rates published in the C series of Official Journal of the European Union, determined over the corresponding reporting period.9 Where no daily euro exchange rate is published in the Official Journal of the European Union for the currency in question, conversion shall be made at the average of the monthly accounting rates established by the Commission and published on its website, determined over the corresponding reporting period.

Beneficiaries with general accounts in euro shall convert costs incurred in another currency into euro according to their usual accounting practices.

Where the implementation of the action requires the award of procurement contracts (implementation contracts), the Beneficiary must award the contract to the bid offering best value for money or the lowest price (as appropriate), avoiding conflicts of interests and retaining the documentation for the event of an audit. Detailed information on subcontracting is provided in the Guide for Applicants.

e) Financial support to third parties
The applications may not envisage provision of financial support to third parties. f) Non-profit rule

EU grants may not have the purpose or effect of producing a profit within the framework of the action. Profit shall be defined as a surplus of the receipts over the eligible costs incurred by the Beneficiary, when the request is made for payment of the balance. In this respect, where a profit is made, the Commission shall be entitled to recover the percentage of the profit corresponding to the Union contribution to the eligible costs actually incurred by the Beneficiary to carry out the action.

 

 

11.2. Maximum amount requested

The EU grant is limited to a maximum co-funding rate of 90% of the total eligible costs of the action.

Consequently, part of the total eligible expenses must be financed from sources other than the EU grant (see section 11.1.c).

The Commission reserves the right to reduce the estimated costs in the Forecast Budget Calculation, if they are deemed as ineligible.

11.3. Payment arrangements

A pre-financing payment corresponding to maximum 80% of the EU grant amount will be transferred to the Coordinator after the signature of the Grant Agreement by both parties and in accordance with its terms.

The Commission will establish the amount of the final payment to be made to the Coordinator on the basis of the calculation of the final grant amount. If the total of earlier payments is higher than the final grant amount, the Beneficiaries will be required to reimburse the amount paid in excess by the Commission through a recovery order.

 

12. PROCEDURE FOR THE SUBMISSION OF APPLICATIONS

12.1. How to apply

Proposals must be submitted by the deadline indicated in section 3 via the Electronic Submission System. The list of available calls can be found at the calls for proposals page.

Before submitting a proposal both the Applicant and Co-applicants must be registered via the Beneficiary Register and obtain the 9-digit Participant Identification Code (PIC) (one for each applicant).

In submitting a proposal, the Applicant accepts the procedures and conditions as described in this Call for Proposals and in the documents to which it refers.

No modification of the application is allowed once the deadline for submission has elapsed. However, if there is a need to clarify certain aspects or for the correction of clerical mistakes, the Commission may contact the Applicant for this purpose during the evaluation process10.

Applicants will be informed in writing about the results of the evaluation process.

12.2. Related documents

The following documents are available via the Electronic Submission System: — Applicationform(SubmissionFormPartAandPartB)
— Required annex –Audit Report11 if applicable
— ModelGrantAgreement

— Guideforapplicants

12.3. Applications for several projects

The Applicant may submit more than one application under this call for proposals. The Applicant may be awarded more than one grant under this call for proposals. An organisation may participate as Applicant or Co-applicant in several applications.

12.4. Several applications for the same project

Only one application will be accepted and evaluated for any given project. In case there are several applications for the same project, the Applicant will be asked to clarify which application shall be evaluated.

An action may receive only one grant from the EU budget.

12.5. Contacts

For questions on the online submission tools, please contact the IT helpdesk set-up for this purpose via the Participant Portal website.

Non-IT related questions shall be sent to the following email address: HOME- ISF@ec.europa.eu. In order to ensure an efficient handling of any enquiry please indicate clearly the reference of this Call for Proposals.

Questions will be answered as soon as possible. Questions received later than 7 calendar days before the deadline for submitting applications will not be answered. In the interest of equal treatment of applicants, the Commission cannot give a prior opinion on the eligibility of applicants or actions or on the outcome of the Call for Proposals before the official announcement of results.

Applicants are advised to consult the Call's website regularly. The Commission will publish at this website any additional information relevant to the Call, such as responses to frequently asked questions (if appropriate) and the results of the selection procedure.

 

13. PUBLICITY
13.1. By the Beneficiaries

Beneficiaries must clearly acknowledge the European Union’s contribution in all publications or in conjunction with activities for which the grant is used. Please refer to the Grant Agreement for more details.

13.2. By the Commission

All information relating to grants awarded in the course of a financial year shall be published on an internet site of the European Union institutions no later than the 30 June of the year following the financial year in which the grants were awarded. The Commission will publish the following information:

• -  name and address of the beneficiary,

• -  subject of the grant,

• -  amount awarded.

Upon a reasoned and duly substantiated request by the Beneficiary, the publication shall be waived if such disclosure risks threatening the rights and freedoms of individuals concerned as protected by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union or harm the commercial interests of the beneficiaries.

 

 

14. DATA PROTECTION

The reply to any call for proposals involves the recording and processing of personal data (such as name, address and CVs of individuals participating in the co-financed action). Such data will be processed pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by the Community institutions and bodies and on the free movement of such data. Unless indicated otherwise, the questions and any personal data requested in order to evaluate the application in accordance with the specifications of the Call for Proposal will be processed solely for that purpose by the Commission or third parties acting on behalf and under the responsibility of the Commission. Data subjects may be informed regarding further details of the processing operations, their rights and how they may be enforced by referring to the privacy statement published in the Legal Notice page of the Participant Portal.

Applicants are invited to check the relevant privacy statement at regular intervals so as to be duly informed on possible updates that may occur by the deadline for submission of their proposals or afterwards. Beneficiaries assume the legal obligation to inform their staff on the relevant processing operations that are to be performed by the Research Executive Agency; in order to do so, they have to provide them with the privacy statements published by the Agency in the Participant Portal before transmitting their data to the Agency. Personal data may be registered in the Early Detection and Exclusion System (EDES) of the European Commission provided for in Articles 105a and 108 of the EU Financial Regulation according to the applicable provisions.

 

15. MEANS OF REDRESS

If, at any stage of the administrative treatment of grant applications, the persons or entities concerned consider that they have been affected by an instance of maladministration, they may, irrespective of any other means of redress, make a complaint to the European Ombudsman in accordance with Article 228(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and as provided by the Parliament Decision of 9 March 1994 on the regulations and general conditions governing the performance of the Ombudsman's duties published in Official Journal L 113 of 4 May 1994.

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