The Cooperation Programme Interreg V-A "Greece-Italy 2014-2020" opens its 1st Call for Ordinary Project Proposals

Date de clôture : 15 oct. 2016  
APPEL À PROJET CLÔTURÉ

Context

The Co-operation Programme Interreg V/A Greece-Italy (EL-IT) 2014-2020 links eleven (11) NUTS III level prefectures and six (6) provinces from two different EU member states, Greece and Italy.

The Programme has a total budget of EUR 123.176.899 and is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) with a total amount of EUR 104.700.362 for the 2014-2020 period.

The overall objective is to support strategic cross-border co-operation for a more prosperous and sustainable region across the Ionian Sea. Emphasis will be placed upon developing the foundations for a dynamic economy which fosters smart, sustainable and inclusive growth with the goal to improve the quality of life for those living in the region especially in times of economic crisis such as these.

Accordingly, the specific objectives of the programme are:

 To exploit in a sustainable way the endogenous potential of the cross-border GR-IT Programme Area;

 To promote the cross-border Area’s integration and connectivity to fields which are important to its development, in full complementarity with EUSAIR;

 To act as a policy driver to tackle common challenges and needs in specific policy fields where cross-border cooperation is expected to deliver practical results.

Documents of reference

Before submitting any project proposal, applicants are invited to consult the Cooperation Programme approved by the European Commission on 15-12-2015 under Commission Decision C(2015)9347 final, Regulation (EU) 1303/2013 as in force, Regulation (EU) 1301/2013 as in force, Regulation (EU) 1299/2013 as in force. These documents are available on the Programme website at http://www.greece-italy.eu, on Managing Authority’s website at http://www.interreg.gr, and on Region Puglia’s website http://www.europuglia.it. Applicants are also invited to study carefully the Programme and Project Manual (Annex).

Priority Axes, Thematic objectives, and Specific Objectives

The present call for proposals is open to all three (3) Programme Prioritiy Axes and the respective seven (7) Specific Objectives of the Programme, namely: 

• Priority Axis 1: Innovation and Competitiveness

Strengthening research, technological development and innovation

1.1 Delivering innovation support services and developing clusters across borders to foster competitiveness

Enhancing the competitiveness of small and medium- sized enterprises

1.2 Supporting the incubation of innovative specialized micro and small enterprises in thematic sectors of interest to the Programme Area

• Priority Axis 2: Integrated Environmental Management

2. Preserving and protecting the environment and promoting resource efficiency

2.1 Valorisation of cultural heritage and natural resources as a territorial asset of the Programme Area 

2.2 Improvement of joint management and governance plans for biodiversity of coastal and rural ecosystems, paying attention on natural resources and protected areas and development of environmental protection measures

2.3 Developing and testing of innovative technologies/ tools to reduce marine and air pollution

• Priority Axis 3: Multimodal Sustainable Transport System

Promoting transport and removing bottlenecks in key network infrastructures

3.1 Boosting maritime transport, short- sea shipping capacity and cross- border ferry connectivity

3.2 Improving cross-border coordination among transport stakeholders on introducing multimodal environmentally- friendly solutions

 Eligible Partnerships

In the Greece – Italy CP Programme the project partnership can consist of three types of beneficiaries:

• lead beneficiary (LB);
• project beneficiary (PB); • associated partner (AP).

Project proposals must include beneficiaries from both countries participating in the Cooperation Programme. Beneficiaries shall cooperate in the development and implementation of operations. In addition, they shall cooperate in the staffing or the financing of operations, or in both1. The total number of beneficiaries must not be less than three (3) and not exceed a maximum of five (5), including the Lead beneficiary. Associated partners are not included in the above limits. The maximum number of potential associated partners per project is two (2). 

Each applicant can participate as Lead beneficiary in no more than one project proposal per specific objective. If an applicant does not conform to the previous rule as explicitly stated above, all of its project applications will be rejected. 

This Call for proposals is only addressed to beneficiaries’ categories a, b, c and d as defined in the Programme & Project Manual:

a. National, regional or local public authorities;

b. bodies governed by public law2, other than legal entities defined under paragraph a, established for the specific purpose of meeting needs in the general interest (needs not having an industrial or commercial character) and which fulfil at least one of the following conditions:

i. be financed, for the most part, by the national, regional or local authorities, or other bodies governed by public law, or;

1. be subject to management supervision by those bodies, or;

2. have an administrative, managerial or supervisory board, more than half of whose members are appointed by the national, regional or local authorities, or by other bodies governed by public law;

c. private organisations, non-profit organisations founded according to private law can be eligible under the following conditions as a whole:

•   they are not established with the goal to obtain profit

•   they do not distribute profits to the shareholders, 

• they operate for at least one year before the launch of the specific call for proposals. This rule is also applicable for the local/regional subsidiary/branch offices. 

 d. International organisations in compliance with article 43 of EC Delegated Regulation no. 1268/2012. 

It should be noted that private companies not falling under the above category c. are not eligible.

See also section 2.A.6.1 of the programme for a non-exhaustive list of the type of beneficiaries per each specific objective.

In principle to become a project beneficiary, an organisation has to be located (decisive is the legal address of the organisation) in the eligible area of the Programme. Organisations located outside the Programme’s eligible area are encouraged to be involved in the projects as associated partners without allocated budget.

However if a beneficiary is located outside the Programme area and has a local/regional subsidiary/branch office established in the programme area, it will receive full ERDF funding.

Funding granted by the Programme to all beneficiaries indicated above is subject to the EU rules on State Aid within the meaning of Article 107 of the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union. Every beneficiary should comply with the rules on State Aid regarding the activities of the project proposed and comply with the relevant assessment made by the JS of the Programme during its evaluation phase. Therefore, all potentials beneficiaries should fill in the State Aid Declaration form when applying for funding. The conditions and modalities to comply with these rules are specified in the Project Manual.

The International Organizations as well as the private bodies cannot assume the Leadership of the projects.

Further information about the eligibility of partnerships is provided in the Programme & Project Manual.

7. How to apply - deadline

In order to submit a project proposal, Applicants must refer to the Applicant’s Package and to all relevant documents for this call for proposals. Project Proposals should be submitted according to the guidelines given below:

A Project Proposal consists of the followings:

A. Electronic submission of the project proposals into the M.I.S3 of the programme including the “Project Detailed Description” that should be uploaded as a separate (excel) file.

B. The digital version of the following documents that have to be uploaded into the MIS of the programme:

• 1. The ‘Partnership Declaration’ (standard form provided), stamped and signed by all the participating beneficiaries.
• 2. The ‘Co-Financing Statement - Non double financing’ (standard form provided), completed, stamped and signed by each beneficiary separately.
• 3. The ‘Declaration of not generating revenues’ (standard form provided) completed, stamped and signed by the Lead beneficiary. In case of revenue generating projects, a cost - benefit analysis should be attached (using the “Guide to Cost-benefit Analysis of Investment Projects - Economic appraisal tool for Cohesion Policy 2014-2020” at http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sources/docgener/studies/pdf/cba_guide.pdf ).
• 4. The ‘Declaration for the non-distribution of profits’ (standard form provided), completed, stamped and signed only by beneficiaries under category of article 6.c (private organisations).
• 5. The ‘Justification of Budget Costs’ (standard form provided), completed, stamped and signed by the Lead beneficiary for the total project budget.
• 6. The ‘project readiness sheet’ by the Lead Beneficiary (standard form provided), completed, stamped and signed by the Lead beneficiary.
• 7. ‘The State aid declaration’ (standard form provided) completed, stamped and signed by each beneficiary separately
• 8. Decision of the designated body of each Project Beneficiary (e.g. Municipal Council, Board of Directors, etc) stating its agreement for submitting the particular project proposal, according to the internal rules/statute of each Beneficiary or the national legislation. This document can be submitted before the approval of the Monitoring Committee. For the Italian beneficiaries the Italian legal framework shall apply. 

For the bodies governed by public law (of article 6.b above) official documents providing evidence that the requirements of article 6.b of this call are met. In case that the nature of a public body is not clearly delivered from the submitted documents, the JS or MA may request additional documentation for clarification. 

For the private organisations (of article 6.c above) the digital version of the following documents should be submitted into the MIS of the programme,:

•   Statutes including all modifications for the past 2 years.

•   Official document indicating the composition of the administrative/managerial or

  supervisory board.

•   Official document indicating the supervision by national, regional or local authorities, or other bodies governed by public law (if applicable)

•   Official document indicating the sources of the body’s revenues, during the last two years preceding the presentation of the project proposal.

•   Declaration for the non distribution of profits.

•   Any official document certified by a public administration authority, providing that the organisation operates for at least one year before the launch of the specific call for proposals.

For Bodies governed by public law (of article 6.b above) and for private organisations (of article 6.c above) the existence of a branch within the Programme area is documented with at least one of the following documents to be electronically submitted through the MIS (digital version):

• Official document for the establishment/registration of a branch issued by the competent Public Authority (e.g. Tax Service of the respective country)
•  Copy of the rental contract, submitted to and validated by the respective Public Authority (e.g. Tax Service of the respective country)
•  Payroll sheet, validated by the competent Public Authority (e.g. Ministry of Labour)
•  Operational costs bills (e.g. electricity, telephone etc.)

For bodies governed by public law (of article 6.b above) that have been established by a Law or Presidential Decree, the submission of a copy of the respective Official Government Gazette where the establishment of the branch is being mentioned is sufficient.

In any case, the documents above must provide evidence that the branch was established and in operation for the period required by the call under each type of beneficiary/category of beneficiary.

Infrastructure Projects (where infrastructure activities are foreseen in the AF) must include the relevant accompanying documents (licenses, approval of feasibility study or any other required approvals, construction permits, preliminary designs/studies, priced bill of quantities signed by the respective body, technical specifications, technical designs, a document certifying the land/building ownership or documentation of transferring the operation rights for the period of 5 years after the end of the project environmental impact assessment etc., where applicable), any other required approvals according to the National Legislation. 

 The non-submission of the above mentioned documentation, stamped and signed (where applicable) will lead to the project proposal rejection. 

Regarding the “Partnership Declaration” (point 2), the JS shall accept the signature of each beneficiary on a separate page.

Inconsistencies (such as wrong name of beneficiaries, wrong project title or budget, wrong name of undersigning person if not entitled to sign) among the information provided in the documents under points B.1-7 will lead to the project proposal rejection (deviations of decimals – amounts lower than 1€ in budget reference can be accepted).

The Application Package must be compiled in English language (apart from the supporting documents such as the decision of the designated body stating its agreement for submitting the particular project proposal, the eligibility of project beneficiaries and the relevant documents for the infrastructure projects such as (feasibility studies, compatibilities, building permissions etc), which may be in the national language.

The Project Proposal must be submitted to the Programme’s Managing Authority/ Joint Secretariat (JS) in electronic version, via MIS. 

To facilitate applicants’ familiarity with the electronic environment of the MIS a model for the application form is attached, although it is not demanded to fill it in and submit it in paper version. 

To be recognised as admissible submission, the project proposal must be electronically submitted into the MIS by October 15th 2016 until the 24:00 Italian time at the latest. Proposals submitted after the above date will not be considered as eligible. 

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