The Civil Society Development Programme 2002 is developed on the basis of experience gathered with previous Civil Society Development Programmes in the period 1995–1998 and Bulgaria’s participation in the Phare Access Programme 1999 and 2000, which was a special programme for strengthening civil society in Central and Eastern Europe. Currently the Phare CSD Programme 2001 is implemented by the CFCU at the Ministry of Finance with the technical support of a consortium of Bulgarian NGOs.

Specific problems and areas of intervention:

  • Integration of vulnerable and minorities groups is still a crucial area where more support and investment are needed.
  • Fight against corruption.
  • Implementation of the Acquis in the social, environmental and consumer protection areas.

The overall objective of the Programme is to sustain the civil society role in Bulgaria through improving its strategic approaches and capacities towards vulnerable groups and minorities integration, fighting against the corruption and transposition and implementation of the environment, consumer protection and social Acquis.

The specific objectives of the Programme include:

  • Design and apply transparent grants management scheme so as to support about 15 national large-scale and about 47 regional medium-scale initiatives of NGOs for better integration of vulnerable and minorities groups, fight against corruption and implementation of the environment, consumer protection and social acquis.
  • Develop cross-sectoral partnerships between NGOs, public bodies and business groups and further assist about 60 small-scale initiatives of community-based NGOs in order to facilitate the communication, interaction and inter-exchange of resources in thematic priorities areas.

The specific objectives of the Programme will be attained through the implementation of a Grant scheme with three lots to support the development and application of strategic approaches of NGOs for better integration of vulnerable and minorities groups, fight against corruption and implementation of Acquis.


The potential beneficiaries of the Grant Scheme will be NGOs working at national but preferably on regional and local level. It is expected that at about 122 NGOs of different range will be awarded 15 macro projects and around 107 micro projects /60 of them in the 6 planning regions/.

FINANCIAL ALLOCATION PROVIDED BY THE CONTRACTING AUTHORITY

The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is 3.605 MEURO. The contracting authority reserves the right not to award all available funds. In case that there are only a few proposals of the quality required to receive a grant for a certain lot it will be admissible that the funds allocated for one of the project lots to be used for financing proposals submitted under another lot if the proposals in question are of a high quality.

Size of grants
Any grant awarded under this programme must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts:

Grant Scheme Component
Minimum amount (EUR)
Maximum amount (EUR)
Total amount (EUR)
Lot 1. National Scope Projects
50 001.00
100 000.00
1 125 000,00
Lot 2. Regional Scope Projects
5 000.00
50 000.00
1 260 000,00
Lot 3. Local Scope (Community based) Projects
5 000.00
12 200.00
1 220 000,00
Total amount: 3 605 000,00


A grant may not be for less than 50 % of the total eligible costs of the action. In addition, no grant may exceed 90% of the total eligible costs of the action (see also section 2.1.4).
The balance must be financed from the applicant's or partners' own resources, or from sources other than the European Community budget.

PROGRAMME MANAGEMENT

The 2002 CSD Programme is implemented by the CFCU at the Ministry of Finance (Implementing Agency) under the supervision of the Delegation of the European Commission to Bulgaria.

A Programme Implementation Unit - Consortium consisting of Resource Center Foundation, Microfond Sofia Foundation, Access Sofia Foundation, OSC Blagoevgrad, OSC Smolian, OSC Sliven, the House of Science and Technology Vratza, Knowledge Association Lovech and Center of NGOs Razgrad will be responsible for the day-to-day management of the project.