About the Program
The European Union changed its financial aid mechanism to candidate countries as of January 1, 2007. Accordingly, financial aids made to candidate and potential candidate countries were combined under the name of IPA (Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance).
The main purpose of IPA is to support projects that serve the needs and priorities of the candidate country on the way to EU membership. The funds made available through the projects aim at harmonization with the EU acquis and the establishment of the necessary administrative capacity for this alignment. IPA, structured in five components, provides pre-accession financial support in new areas identified as environment, transportation, regional competition, human resources development, and rural development, as well as support for transitional and institutional building. In addition, candidate countries continue to participate in Community Programs, whose contributions are partially financed under IPA.
About Application
Projects developed by Civil Society Organizations (chambers of commerce and industry, trade associations, universities, associations, foundations, cooperatives, unions, trade unions, etc.) within the scope of Pre-Accession Financial Assistance are financed by a method called "Grant Program". The Grant Program is an implementation method that is included in the projects developed by central level public institutions (Ministries, Undersecretariats, etc.) within the framework of the priorities of the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA), and is an implementation method created to support the participation of Civil Society Organizations in the EU harmonization studies in the project area. In Turkey, a "de-centralized" management system is currently implemented in the implementation of EU support. Accordingly, some EU programs are carried out by the institutions of Turkey that are agreed with the agreements and implement certain standards. In this context, the coordination task of the announcement, application, and evaluation is given to the Central Finance and Contracts Unit (CFCU), which operates under the Republic of Turkey the Undersecretariat of Treasury, in order to ensure the transparent and objective implementation of EU supports.
The project application process of many EU grant programs for CSOs starts with the call for proposal announcement of the Central Finance and Contracts Unit and takes approximately 2–3 months. The same calls are published in the relevant sections of the EuropeAid- EU Foreign Aid website. Civil Society Organizations are obliged to submit the projects developed depending on the subject of the grant program to the CFCU within the application period.
The amount of grant support provided for each project within the scope of the Grant Programs may vary according to the budget and purpose of the Grant Program. There is no regular announcement time for the Grant Programs, the grant programs are made ready for the announcement by the CFCU after they are matured by the program holder institutions/organizations in accordance with the strategy and action plans created through negotiations between the institutions of the EU and Turkey. Therefore, CSOs wishing to develop projects are required to follow the calls made by the CFCU at certain intervals (for example once a week) via the web page. Announcements regarding Grant Programs are also available on the website of the Ministry for EU Affairs.
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