Human rights and democratisation: role of the Union in third countries

This document explains the process of selection of thematic and geographical priorities for the implementation of the 2001 European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR). The EIDHR has, in 2001, a total appropriation of 97.03 M EUR, covers five budget lines and has three principal procedures for identifying projects: - the Calls for Proposals that will be implemented by civil society operators; - targeted projects; - micro-projects facilities, which are small grants made available to and administered directly by selected Delegations. In selecting priorities, two kinds of inputs were considered: - a political input, provided by the analysis of recent EU official statements. -a procedural input based on the Commission services know-how, direct knowledge of countries and regions and ongoing cooperation programmes and projects. For 2001, 12 thematic priorities were selected. These include, the support for education, training and awareness-raising in the area of HR, and support for measures to combat racism and xenophobia and to protect minorities and indigenous peoples. There are a restricted number of themes for each country/region, so as to enhance focus and impact of the EU action in the field. The Call for Proposals involved ten priority themes. A total of 44 M EUR allocated corresponds to 50% of Budget Lines B7-701, 702, and 703. Projects to be financed via the remaining two budget lines -B7-704N and B7-709N- will be selected as targeted projects. The total available for targeted and micro projects in 2001 amounts approximately to 53.3 M EUR. The document gives a breakdown of the funds available. Targeted projects are necessary in order to pursue objectives that cannot effectively be achieved via the instrument of the CfP. The document gives a number of reasons concerning both the nature of the action and the type of implementing partners which justify the necessary of this instrument. One example is projects to be financed out of funds within B7-704N (International Criminal Court) and B7-709N (Electoral Assistance and Observation). These two budget lines were not included in the CfP because of the specificity of these sectors and the limited number of implementing partners. There are two tables in this document which indicate which thematic areas must be considered as priorities in each country for each budget line.�