EEA and Norway Grants
The EEA and Norway Grants are funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. The Grants have two goals – to contribute to a more equal Europe, both socially and economically – and to strengthen the relations between Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, and the 15 beneficiary countries in Europe. The objective of the Grants is to reduce social and economic disparities and strengthen bilateral relations. This strengthens the internal market, leading to a more prosperous Europe. The so called Regional Funds (Fund for Youth Employment and Fund for Regional Cooperation) have a joint allocation of €100 million in the 2014-2021 funding period.
The fund operator (FO), assisting the Financial Mechanism Office in implementing the EEA and Norway Grants Regional Funds is a consortium, consisting of Ecorys Polska and JCP Italy. The FO takes on the administrative and technical tasks related to implementation of the Funds. EGREG is the official Grants Management tool setup by the FO to support project consortia in implementing their projects by providing adequate functions to record achievements and create periodical reports.
Fund for Youth Employment
The Fund for Youth Employment was established in 2017 to contribute to sustainable and quality youth employment in Europe. Unlike the ordinary programmes funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, this Fund has a transnational focus – it helps entities across Europe pooling their efforts to find new ways of reducing youth unemployment. The €60.6 million Fund for Youth Employment complements the Youth Employment Initiative, which is the main EU funding programme to facilitate the roll-out of the Youth Guarantee –a commitment by all EU Member States to ensure that young people receive good quality offer of employment, continued education and apprenticeship. The Fund is distributed via two calls for proposals:
- Active Youth (launched in 2017)
- Unlocking Youth Potential (launched in 2020)
Fund for Regional Cooperation
The Fund for Regional Cooperation supports projects tackling common European challenges through regional cross-border and transnational cooperation. The € 34.5 million Fund supports cooperation projects focusing on knowledge sharing, exchange of good practice and capacity building across the priority sectors of the EEA and Norway Grants 2014-2021. Within these sectors, funding is allocated to initiatives such as: inclusive dialogue and the strengthening of transnational/regional networks, knowledge sharing and policy exchange to accelerate innovation; the development of sustainable transnational cooperation structures between the business sector, public sector, civil sector and academia, and engagements contributing to and enhancing effectiveness and efficiency in policy development and responses to common European challenges.
The call Common challenges – Shared solutions has been launched in 2018.