ENTERPRISE AND INDUSTRY DIRECTORATE-GENERAL
Directorate E : Service industries
Unit E1 : Tourism Policy
Date : 02/07/2013 (version 11)
Answers to requests for clarifications
Call for proposals
ACTION N°: 70/G/ENT/CIP/13/B/N/03S04
TITLE: SupporTING THE ENHANCEMENT AND PROMOTION OF SUSTAINABLE transnational thematic tourism products
Question 1 / I work for XXX. Last year, as part of our celebrations we developed a maritime event with an SME. The event was a huge success, attracting huge numbers of residents and visitors etc. ….. we want to develop this event, … This will help to deliver an economic benefit to the local area through tourism and generate new and exciting partnerships with the tourism industry, both domestic and international… Could you clarify if, given the above brief outline, you think we do meet the call's criteria?Answer 1 / Please note that the Commission services cannot, for reasons of equal treatment, neither assess proposals at this stage nor help to draft proposals. Assessing the proposal is the exclusive competence of an appointed evaluation committee. Such committee can under no circumstances perform its duties prior to the submission of proposals. Our reply to your questions has to be considered as a clarification of the published call for proposals document and under no circumstances as an assessment of parts of a proposal.
Please also refer tothe remark on page 18of the "Call Text":
"The onus will be on the applicants to demonstrate that they fully respect the requirements set in the call. Please provide any useful supporting document and proof of the fulfilment of the above-mentioned compulsory requirements and clearly indicate in the submitted proposal, the name of the applicants fulfilling them, in order to allow the evaluation committee to accomplish its assessment."
At this stage and without any justifications/proofs, the Commission services are not able to prejudge the eligibility of your proposal.
Please refer to the "Call Text" including all the necessary details to enable you to assess the eligibility of your project proposal and in particular to Annex B.0 "Eligibility and relevance assessment form" on page 25 of the Call Text (Section 13). Please also carefully read the Guide for Applicants and the Draft Grant Agreement before submitting your proposal in the electronic submission system for which the link will be operational soon.
We draw your particular attention to the following requirement in Section 2 on page 7 ( Point 2.2. Requirements) : Moreover, the tourism product must:
1. BE TRANSNATIONAL - A thematic tourism product (e.g. a route/itinerary/trail/tourism offer) has to cover/be developed in at least 4 countries as listed under point 5.1. I. Involvement of more than 4 countries will be considered as an added value for the proposal. Please note that countries from which potential tourists could come will not be taken into account to fulfill this criterion.
Question 2 / Please can you tell me where we can get the application form? On the funding portal there was a message saying "No submission system is open for this call." Does this mean the submission system will open later?
We have had a quick look at the website. There is no mention of SMEs or NGOs being excluded from this call. Does it mean that SMEs and NGOs can apply under this call? Also if they are new organisations would this be a disadvantage?
We understand that the EU policy is based on equality and new organisations are encouraged to apply for grants and other calls. Does this apply to this Call? Also, how many participants there must be for this Call? Can three organisations take part to create a thematic sustainable tourism concept? Or do we need a minimum of 5 partners?
Answer 2 / We confirm that the electronic submission system will be operational soon.
The Call documents are however available at the link named "Call documents" and including the Call Text, the Guide for Applicants as well as the Draft Grant Agreement.
Please carefully read these documents and in particular Sections 5.1.I "Geographical eligibility" and 5.1.II "Types of applicants" (starting on page 16 of the Call Text)
"1. Applicants should act in consortium with partner organisations. The consortium must gather a minimum of five applicants (i.e. 5 different legal entities mentioned separately in the grant agreement, having duly filled in Form A2 and having tasks clearly defined in the technical proposal and budgetary annex) covering at least four countries as listed under point 5.1 I. "Geographical eligibility" 2.…"
Please also refer to Annex B.0 "Eligibility and relevance assessment form" on page 25 of the Call Text (Section 13).
We confirm that SMEs acting in the tourism sector as well as Non-governmental organisations whose core activities fall under the fields of: tourism, regional development or any other field that is strictly related to the object of the proposal are among target organisations that can apply to the present call.
We also draw your attention to the eligibility criterion (pages 16/17, Section 5, Point 5.1 II Types of applicantsPoint 2:Moreover, among the minimum five applicants in the consortium: a) at least one must be an SME – Small and Medium Sized enterprise - acting in the tourism sector.
For the purpose of the present call, it is considered that an SME being the partner in the consortium has to provide a proof that is established and has been operating on the market for at least 2 years and has to act in one of the following fields(…..)
This should be understood as: at least one SME being partner in the consortium has to be established and operating on the market for at least 2 years.
Question 3 / Iam writing to inquire if the grant for the Sustainable Transnational Thematic Tourism project is open to a Serbian national and/or company, given that Serbia is not part of the EU yet.
Also, I would like to find out if the program is open to a Canadian national and/or company.
Answer 3 / As mentioned in Section 5.1 I on page 16 of the Call Text "Geographical eligibility" applications from legal entities established in one of the following countries are eligible : Point 3) Other countries participating in the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme of the CIP: Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania and Israel.
Participation of partners from other countries (including Canada) is allowed – if relevant for the project - but it will not be considered as concurring to the eligible costs, nor as concurring to satisfy the minimum consortium requirements stated in points 5.1.II.1. (This means that these additional countries will not be considered for verifying the eligibility criteria 5.1.II.1 – consortium gathering a minimum of 5 partners from 4 different countries.
Countries which will be considered for verifying these criteria will only be the ones covered by point 5.1.I (1,2,3)).
We draw your attention to Section 5 of the call text Eligibility and its point 5.1.II.3. Applications must be submitted by a legal person; natural persons (i.e. individuals) are not eligible.
Question 4 / I am a freelancer, and I would like to apply for the call. I would love to get in touch with the right persons. I would like to know what are the first answers and the first things I need to do to be able to pitch my ideas … It would be interesting if we could have a phone call or if I could write a letter to the right persons…
Answer 4 / See first paragraph of Answer 1.
As reported in the Section 10 of the Call Text :
"Contacts between the contracting authority and potential applicants can only take place in certain circumstances and under the following conditions only:
Before the final date for submission of proposals:
- At the request of the applicant, the Commission may provide additional information solely for the purpose of clarifying the nature of the call.
- Any requests for additional information must be made in writing only to the coordinates stated below : "
The onus will be on the applicants to demonstrate that they fully respect the requirements set in the call. Please refer to the "Call Text" including all the necessary details to enable you to assess the eligibility of your project proposal and in particular to Annex B.0 "Eligibility and relevance assessment form" on page 25 of the Call Text (Section 13).
We draw your attention to Section 5 of the call text Eligibility and its point 5.1.II.3. Applications must be submitted by a legal person; natural persons (i.e. individuals) are not eligible.
Please also read carefully the Guide for Applicants, Section V Part B "Description of the Action – Form B6" including the data and structure requested for the submitted proposal. The link to the electronic submission system, including a word version of Form B6 will be operational soon.
Question 5 / 1. Concerning the implication of a Ministry in the Consortium, for Germany, do you mean a Federal Ministry or may a Land Ministry be eligible in the framework of your call?
2. Concerning Staff costs taken into account in the budget, is it possible to report salaries (and related social security contributions) of already hired staff partially or totally dedicated to the project ? If so,to what extend? Is this possible regardless of the legal status, i.e. is it possible to report Staff costs for public regional or local entities, associations, federations, private law entities and/or SME?
3. Finally, concerning SME's and micro-enterprises, outside the criteria reported in the call for proposals, is the term SME referring to a specific legal status or may an non for profit association (French law 1901) be considered as SME provided they comply with the criteria related to the headcount, turnover and minimum operation years specified in the call ?
Answer 5 / 1. For the purpose of the present call for proposals, an entity specified in point 5.1.II.2. b) a Ministry (public national governmental authority), in charge of tourism and/or regional development or any other area which is in relation to the object of the proposal is meant as a Ministry at national (not regional) level. We confirm that in the case of Germany it should be a Federal Ministry to fulfill this criterion.
However, a Ministry at regional level (of the Region, Land etc.) can be considered to fulfill the condition of the another mandatory applicant as specified in point 5.1.II.2. c) a regional or local public governmental authority.
2. We confirm that staff costs for permanent or temporary staff already hired by the beneficiaries may be reported in the budget. By signing The documents A/2 applicants declare that their staff will be carrying out the activities of the project, additional to their routine activities. Relevant time sheets signed by the staff and the immediate supervisor should be kept as supporting documents to justify these costs. Please read carefully the Guide for Applicant Section VII.3. (a) and Sections VII.7 and VII.8 for the calculation of the time and rate dedicated to the project.
The salary costs of personnel of national administrations are eligible to the extentthat they relate to activities which the relevant public authority would not carry out if the project concerned was not undertaken.
Please refer to the Call Text Section 5.1. II Types of applicants, listing the eligible types of entities.
3. As indicated in the Guide to EU definition of SME, an enterprise can be considered as "any entity engaged in an economic activity, irrespective of its legal form".
We draw your attentionto the fact that the purpose of integration of enterprises in the consortium should be in line with the objectives of the call (pleaserefer to page 7 of the CallText). It isthe onusof the applicant to demonstrate eligibility of partners involvedwithout any doubts for assessing the eligibility of the consortium partners by the evaluating committee.
Non-profit organisations/associations acting in the tourism field are among the target organisations which could be partners in the consortium (see the point 5.1.II.4).
However, the onus will be on applicant to prove and demonstratethatat least one partner of the consortium is engaged in an economic activity and fully complies with specific requirements as specified under the point 5.1 II 2 a), including the references to headcount, turnover and minimum operation years and field of activity.
For the purpose of this call, an SME acting in the tourism sector (entity as specified under the point 5.1 II 2 a) is meant as an entity engaged in an economic activity (for profit).
Please also refer to the remark on page 18 of the "Call Text": "The onus will be on the applicants to demonstrate that the partners fully respect the requirements set in the call. Please provide any useful supporting document and proof of the fulfillment of the above-mentioned compulsory requirements and clearly indicate partners fulfilling them, in order to allow the evaluation committee to accomplish its assessment. "
Please also refer to recommendations 2003/361and the guide for SME definition that can be found at the link provided in the call text on page 17, Section 5.1.II 2 a).
Question 6 / Please send us the link to download the documents in Spanish (Guide for Applicants, Grant agreement and Call Text), i.e. all the documents related to the call and if no link is available, could you send us the documents by email?
Answer 6 / We regret to inform you that the documents are only available in English for the moment and that it is impossible at this stage to provide translations without delaying the entire procedure.