The European Commission has issued a call for proposals under the programme "Europe for citizens" to finance projects that test and develop international exchange programs to establish partnerships between civil society organizations.

The Official Journal of the European Union of July 29th, 2009 reflects the call for proposals EACEA 15/2009 on active citizens for Europe innovative action, with which the Commission developed the programme "Europe for Citizens".

This programme, whose main objective is to promote active European citizenship, intended to give citizens the opportunity to interact and participate in constructing an ever closer Europe, developing a sense of European identity, and enhancing tolerance and mutual understanding between European citizens.

As for the call EACEA 15/2009, it aims to test and develop innovative transnational exchange schemes with a view to building long-term partnerships between civil society organisations operating in different participating countries in the area of the ‘Europe for citizens’ programme: EU Member States, Croatia, Macedonia and Albania.

In order to achieve that goal, funded projects must develop and test new forms of transnational mobility between civil society organisations, and promote the concept of transnational mentoring between civil society organisations to support innovative project methodologies.

The types of activities supported by this call for proposals should promote transnational mobility between the staff and members of the partner organisations. This could include:

• Mentoring on a one-to-one basis.
• Mentoring of groups of staff/volunteers.
• Exchanges of staff between the partner organisations.

All activities must start between January 1 and March 31, 2008.

The total budget allocated to co-finance projects in this call 1 100 000 EUR. The minimum grant will be 75,000 euros and the maximum 150,000. The deadline for the submission of applications to the Executive Agency Education, Audiovisual and Culture is September 30th, 2009.