Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme 2014-2020

2011/0344(COD) 17/12/2013

PURPOSE: to establish for the period 2014-2020 the Rights and Citizens Programme, following on from the Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, Daphne III, The Sections "Antidiscrimination and Diversity" and "Gender Equality" of the Programme for Employment and Social Solidarity (PROGRESS) from 2007-2013.

LEGISLATIVE ACT: Regulation (EU) No 1381/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme for the period 2014 to 2020.

CONTENT: this Regulation establishes a new European Union Programme on Rights and Citizenship covering the period from 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2020.

European added value: the Programme shall finance actions with European added value. To that end, the Commission shall ensure that the actions selected for funding are intended to produce results with European added value.

The European added value of actions, including that of small-scale and national actions, 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, their contribution to the elaboration and dissemination of best practices or their potential to contribute to the creation of minimum standards, practical tools and solutions that address cross-border or Union-wide challenges.

General objective: the general objective of the Programme shall be to contribute to the further development of an area where equality and the rights of persons as enshrined in the TEU, in the TFEU, in the Charter and in the international human rights conventions to which the Union has acceded, are promoted, protected and effectively implemented.

Specific objectives: the Programme shall have the following specific objectives:

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 Article 21 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 and to advance gender mainstreaming;
to prevent and combat all forms of violence against children, young people and women, as well as violence against other groups at risk, in particular groups at risk of violence in close relationships, and to protect victims of such violence;
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 specific objectives 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 law 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 Regulation details the type of actions to be financed to respond to these specific objectives (such as the collection of data and statistics; training activities; mutual learning; support for main actors whose activities contribute to the implementation of the objectives of the Programme, such as support for NGOs in the implementation of actions with European added value).

In order to ensure an inclusive perspective, beneficiaries shall encourage the participation of relevant target groups in actions financed by the Programme.

Access to the Programme: access to the Programme shall be open to all bodies and entities legally established in the EU and EFTA countries, candidate countries, potential candidates and countries acceding to the Union, in accordance with the general principles and the general terms and conditions laid down in the Regulation. Bodies and entities which are profit-oriented shall have access to the Programme only in conjunction with non-profit or public organisations.

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 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.

Complementarity: the Commission, in cooperation with the Member States, shall ensure overall consistency and complementarity and synergies with other Union instruments including, inter alia, the Justice Programme, the "Europe for Citizens" Programme and the European Union Programme for Employment and Social Innovation, and with other programmes in the areas of employment and social affairs; home affairs, health and consumer protection; education, training, youth and sport; the information society; and enlargement, in particular the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA II) and the European Structural and Investment Funds.

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.

Performance indicators were also added to better evaluate the effectiveness of the Programme. 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).

Annex: the Regulation includes an annex relating to the allocation of funds.

ENTRY INTO FORCE: 29.12.2013.

DELEGATED ACTS: in order to ensure that the Programme is sufficiently flexible to respond to changing needs and corresponding policy priorities throughout its duration, the power to adopt acts in accordance with Article 290 TFEU should be delegated to the Commission concerning modification of the percentages set out in the Annex to this Regulation for each group of specific objectives that would exceed those percentages by more than 5 percentage points. To assess the need for such a delegated act, those percentages should be calculated on the basis of the financial envelope of the Programme for its entire duration, and not on the basis of annual appropriations.

The European Parliament or Council may raise objections to a delegated act within two months from the date of notification (which may be extended by two months). If Parliament or Council raise objections, the delegated act will not enter into force.

Final act