Civil Society Dialogue – III Political Criteria and Media Grant Schemes

The Call for Proposals of the "Civil Society Dialogue between the EU and Türkiye III” (CSD-III) was announced on 20 May 2013. This Grant Programme has been launched by the Ministry for EU Affairs as a continuation of previous civil society dialogue projects conducted by the Ministry for EU Affairs since 2005. It consists of two components, Political Criteria and Media, and will be funded through a resource amounting to 9 million Euros.

Under the Political Criteria Grant Scheme, civil society organizations (CSOs) in Türkiye will be given the opportunity of getting familiar with the policies of the EU concerning political criteria both in terms of legislation and implementation and being prepared for the accession through strengthening contacts and mutual exchange of experience between related civil society actors in the Member States and Türkiye. The three priority areas of the component are human rights, anti-discrimination and democracy and rule of law.

The objectives of the Media Grant Scheme on the other hand are to strengthen the capacities of the actors in the media sector and to establish a sustainable dialogue between related actors in Türkiye and the EU. Depending on the priority area, media organizations as well as CSOs in the Member States and/or Türkiye are going to be able to benefit from this grant scheme as beneficiaries.

The deadline for submitting the proposals under the Political Criteria Grant Scheme is 5 July 2013, for the proposals under the Media Grant Scheme is 12 July 2013. Also, given the key importance of sustainable partnerships between the EU and Türkiye for the Grant Programme, it is a necessary condition to find partners from the EU for the potential beneficiaries in Türkiye and partners from Türkiye for the potential beneficiaries in the EU. The Ministry for EU Affairs has therefore developed a “Partner Search and Matchmaking Tool”, which provides potential beneficiaries with the opportunity to find partners for their project proposals, or to review and engage in potential projects registered in the Tool.

More information on the Grant Scheme, application documents and the Partner Search and Matchmaking Tool can be found on the project web site www.csdproject.net.