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Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme 2014-2020

2011/0344(COD)

The European Parliament adopted by 430 votes to 34, with 38 abstentions, a legislative resolution on the proposed Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the Rights and Citizenship Programme 2014-2020.

Parliament adopted its position at first reading, following the ordinary legislative procedure. The amendments adopted in plenary are the result of a compromise negotiated between the European Parliament and the Council.

Programme title: the programme shall be called "Equality, Rights and Citizenship".

European added value: the European added value of actions was underlined. These actions taken at small-scale and national levels, shall be assessed in the light of criteria such as their contribution to the consistent and coherent implementation of Union law, and to wide public awareness about the rights deriving from it, their transnational impact or their potential to contribute to the creation of minimum standards, practical tools and solutions that address cross-border or Union-wide challenges.

Specific objectives: the specific objectives of the Programme have been extended to:

  • promote the effective implementation of the principle of non -discrimination on grounds of sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation, and to respect the principle of non-discrimination on the grounds provided for in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union;
  • prevent and combat racism, xenophobia, homophobia and other forms of intolerance;
  • promote and protect the rights of persons with disabilities;
  • promote equality between women and men and to advance gender mainstreaming;
  • prevent and combat all forms of violence against children, young people and women, as well as violence against other groups at risk;
  • promote and protect the rights of the child;
  • contribute to ensuring the highest level of protection of privacy andpersonal data;
  • promote and enhance the exercise of rights deriving from citizenship of the Union;
  • enable individuals in their capacity as consumers or entrepreneurs in the internal market to enforce their rights deriving from Union law, having regard to the projects funded under the Consumer Programme.

The programme should also be devoted to preventing and combating all forms of violence, hatred, segregation and stigmatisation, as well as combating bullying, harassment and intolerant treatment, for example in public administration, the police, the judiciary, at school and in the workplace. Measures aimed at eliminating discrimination against the Roma shall also be implemented.

The specific objectives of the Programme shall be pursued through, in particular:

-         enhancing awareness and knowledge of Union law and policies as well as of the rights, values and principles underpinning the Union;

-         supporting the effective, comprehensive and consistent implementation and application of Union instruments and policies in the Member States and the monitoring and evaluation thereof;

-         promoting cross-border cooperation, improving mutual knowledge and enhancing mutual trust among all stakeholders;

-         improving knowledge and understanding of potential obstacles to the exercise of rights and principles guaranteed by the TEU, the TFEU, the Charter, international conventions to which the Union has acceded, and secondary Union legislation.

The type of actions to be funded have been revised to meet these specific objectives. Generally, the actions funded by the programme should represent a real European added value.

In addition, so that their actions affect the greatest number of people, beneficiaries shall encourage the participation of relevant target groups in actions financed by the Programme.

Access to the programme: it is specified that bodies and entities which are profit-oriented shall have access to the Programme only in conjunction with non-profit or public organisations. In addition to the entities covered by the Programme, access shall also be open to international organisations active in the areas covered by the Programme.

National, regional and local authorities should also be included among the bodies and entities having access to the Programme.

Financial envelope: in accordance with the overall agreement on the financial framework, the financial envelope for the implementation of the Programme for the period 2014 to 2020 is set at EUR 439.473 million.

This shall be divided in line with the Annex of the future Regulation:

- Group 1: 57 % of the total envelope as follows:

·         to promote the effective implementation of the principle of non-discrimination in line with the principles of the Charter;

·         to prevent and combat racism, xenophobia, homophobia and other forms of intolerance;

·         to promote and protect the rights of persons with disabilities;

·         to promote equality between women and men.

- Group 2: 43% of the envelope as follows:

·         to prevent and combat all forms of violence against children, young people and women, as well as violence against other groups at risk;

·         to promote and protect the rights of the child;

·         to contribute to ensuring the highest level of protection of privacy and personal data;

·         to promote and enhance the exercise of rights deriving from citizenship of the Union;

·         to enable individuals in their capacity as consumers or entrepreneurs in the internal market to enforce their rights deriving from Union law, having regard to the projects funded under the Consumer Programme.

The Commission shall not depart from the allocated percentages by more than five percentage points for each group of specific objectives. Should it prove necessary to exceed that limit, the Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts to modify each of the figures.

Work programme: the annual work programme shall determine:

·         the actions to be undertaken, including the indicative allocation of financial resources;

·         the essential eligibility, selection and award criteria to be used to select the proposals which are to receive financial contributions;

·         the minimum percentage of annual expenditure to be allocated to grants.

Appropriate and fair distribution of financial support between different areas covered by the specific objectives shall be ensured.

Monitoring and evaluation of the Programme: the Commission shall monitor the Programme annually. It shall also provide:

  • an interim evaluation report by 30 June 2018;
  • an ex-post evaluation report by 31 December 2021.

These assessments should also consider the way in which issues relating to equality between men and women, non-discrimination and the protection of the child have been taken into account in the Programme actions.

Performance indicators were also added to better evaluate the effectiveness of the Programme. These last include the number and percentage of persons in a target group reached by the awareness-raising activities; the number of stakeholders participating in training activities; the number of cases, activities and outputs of cross-border cooperation; the geographical coverage of the activities, etc.

In addition to the indicators, the evaluation reports shall assess the European added value of the actions as well as the level of finance involved in relation to results achieved (in terms of effectiveness).