EUROPEAN COMMISSION Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME) CALL FOR PROPOSALS Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs Framework partnership Agreement (FPA) 2016-2021 COS-EYE-FPA-2016-4-01 COSME Work Programme 2016 Ref. Ares(2016)366554 - 22/01/2016
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EUROPEAN COMMISSION Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME)
CALL FOR PROPOSALS
Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs
Framework partnership Agreement (FPA)
2016-2021
COS-EYE-FPA-2016-4-01
COSME Work Programme 2016
Ref. Ares(2016)366554 - 22/01/2016
2
Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND ............................................. 4
- It is not allowed that a partner participates in more than one proposal. Nevertheless, should this
happen, the respective organisation will be excluded from all the proposals it applied. The
respective consortia that will be affected by the exclusion of (a) partner(s) must still fulfil the
eligibility criteria as stipulated in 6.1 and 6.2 in order to be considered eligible.
7. EXCLUSION CRITERIA
7.1. Exclusion from participation:
An applicant will be excluded from participating in the call for proposals procedure if it is in any of
the following situations:
(a) - it is bankrupt, subject to insolvency or winding-up procedures,
- its assets are being administered by a liquidator or by a court,
- it is in an arrangement with creditors,
- its business activities are suspended, or
- it is in any analogous situation arising from a similar procedure provided for under national laws
or regulations;
(b) it has been established by a final judgment or a final administrative decision that the entity is in
breach of its obligations relating to the payment of taxes or social security contributions in
accordance with the law of the country in which it is established, with those of the country in which
the contracting authority is located or those of the country of the performance of the contract;
An entity shall also be excluded where a natural or legal person that assumes unlimited liability for
the debts of that entity is in a situation listed in point (a) or (b) above;
(c) it has been established by a final judgment or a final administrative decision that the entity is
guilty of grave professional misconduct by having violated applicable laws or regulations or ethical
standards of the profession to which the applicant belongs, or by having engaged in any wrongful
conduct which has an impact on its professional credibility where such conduct denotes wrongful
intent or gross negligence, including, in particular, any of the following:
(i) fraudulently or negligently misrepresenting information required for the verification of
the absence of grounds for exclusion or the fulfilment of selection criteria or in the
performance of the contract;
(ii) entering into agreement with another entity with the aim of distorting competition;
(iii) violating intellectual property rights;
(iv) attempting to influence the decision-making process of the contracting authority during
the procurement procedure;
12 In case a proposal contains partners from countries that are, at the time of submission, not yet participating in
COSME, it is strongly suggested that the consortium is composed of more partners than the minimum required.
14
(v) attempting to obtain confidential information that may confer upon it undue advantages
in the procurement procedure;
(d) it has been established by a final judgment that the entity is guilty of any of the following:
(i) fraud, within the meaning of Article 1 of the Convention on the protection of the
European Communities' financial interests drawn up by the Council Act of 26 July 199513
;
(ii) corruption, as defined in Article 3 of the Convention on the fight against corruption
involving officials of the European Communities or officials of Member States of the
European Union , drawn up by the Council Act of 26 May 199714
and Article 2(1) of
Council Framework Decision 2003/568/JHA15
, as well as corruption as defined in the legal
provisions of the country where the contracting authority is located or the country in which
the applicant is established or the country of performance of the contract;
(iii) participation in a criminal organisation, as defined in Article 2 of Council Framework
Decision 2008/841/JHA16
;
(iv) money laundering or terrorist financing, as defined in Article 1 of Directive 2005/60/EC
of the European Parliament and of the Council17
;
(v) terrorist-related offences or offences linked to terrorist activities, as defined in Articles 1
and 3 of Council Framework Decision 2002/475/JHA18
respectively, or inciting or aiding or
abetting or attempting to commit such offences, as referred to in Article 4 of that Framework
Decision;
(vi) child labour or other forms of trafficking in human beings as defined in Article 2 of
Directive 2011/36/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council19
;
(e) it has shown significant deficiencies in complying with main obligations in the performance of
the contract financed by the budget, which has led to its early termination or to the application of
liquidated damages or other contractual penalties, or which has been discovered following checks,
audits or investigations by an authorising officer, OLAF or the Court of Auditors;
(f) it has been established by a final judgment or final administrative decision that the entity has
committed an irregularity within the meaning of Article 1(2) of Council Regulation (EC, Euratom)
No 2988/9520
.
13 OJ C 316, 27.11.1995, p. 48. 14 OJ C 195, 25.6.1997, p. 1. 15 Council Framework Decision 2003/568/JHA of 22 July 2003 on combating corruption in the private sector (OJ L
192, 31.7.2003, p. 54). 16 Council Framework Decision 2008/841/JHA of 24 October 2008 on the fight against organised crime (OJ L 300,
11.11.2008, p. 42). 17 Directive 2005/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 October 2005 on the prevention of the use
of the financial system for the purpose of money laundering and terrorist financing (OJ L 309, 25.11.2005, p. 15). 18 Council Framework Decision 2002/475/JHA of 13 June 2002 on combating terrorism (OJ L 164, 22.6.2002, p. 3). 19 Directive 2011/36/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 April 2011 on preventing and combating
trafficking in human beings and protecting its victims, and replacing Council Framework Decision 2002/629/JHA
(OJ L 101, 15.4.2011, p. 1). 20 Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2988/95 of 18 December 1995 on the protection of the European Communities
financial interests (OJ L 312, 23.12.1995, p. 1.
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The contracting authority shall exclude the entity where a person who is a member of the
administrative, management or supervisory body of that entity or has powers of representation,
decision or control is in a situation listed in points (c) to (f) above.
7.2. Exclusion from award:
The applicant will not be granted financial assistance if, in the course of the grant award procedure,
they:
(a) is in a situation of exclusion established in accordance with Article 106 FR;
(b) has misrepresented the information required as a condition for participating in the procedure or
have failed to supply that information;
(c) was previously involved in the preparation of the grant where this entails a distortion of
competition that cannot be remedied otherwise.
Applicants will not be granted financial assistance if, in the course of the grant award procedure,
they:
(a) are subject to a conflict of interest;
(b) are guilty of misrepresentation in supplying the information required by EASME as a
condition of participation in the grant award procedure or fail to supply this information;
(c) find themselves in one of the situations of exclusion, referred to in section 7.1.
7.3 Supporting documents:
The applicant must sign a declaration on their honour that they are not in one of the situations
triggering exclusion or rejection from a given grant award procedure according to Article 106(1)
and 107(1) of the Financial Regulation, filling in the relevant form.
8. SELECTION CRITERIA
8.1. Financial capacity
The applicant(s) must have access to solid and adequate funding sources, so as to be able to
maintain activities for the period of the Implementation Strategy.
Applicants that qualify as private undertakings or bodies (PUB) have to prove their financial
capacity to carry-out the proposed implementation strategy. For proving the financial capacity the
form for the financial capacity check needs to be completed and submitted together with the
supporting financial statements (balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement) certified
by an external auditor for the last two financial years for which the accounts have been closed.
The form for the financial capacity check is available on-line via the Participants Portal:
propose a specific grant agreement without pre-financing;
propose a specific grant agreement with a pre-financing paid in instalments;
propose a specific grant agreement with a pre-financing covered by a bank guarantee;
reject the application.
8.2. Operational capacity
Applicants must demonstrate that one of their core activities is the support of small businesses and
entrepreneurs and that they deliver business support services to start-ups or young entrepreneurs.
At least half of the consortium partners including the coordinator (Lead Intermediary
Organisation, LIO) must have previous 4-years implementing experience with Erasmus for Young
Entrepreneurs projects and demonstrate how this experience will benefit the partnership.
Applicants must have the professional competencies as well as appropriate qualifications necessary
to complete the proposed strategy.
In this respect, applicants have to submit the following supporting documents:
a summary table indicating the persons that will make up the core team responsible for the
Implementation Strategy with their qualifications and competences.
a list of previous projects and activities performed and connected to the policy field of the call
or to the actions to be carried out. This will include the description of previous experience in
the EYE programme, if any.
Templates will be available in the application forms.
9. AWARD CRITERIA
Eligible applications will be assessed on the basis of the following criteria.
Criteria Points
1) Relevance 30
How relevant is the proposal in relation to the objectives of the call to
implement the EYE programme?
How wide and direct is the access to entrepreneurs (potential new and host
entrepreneurs as well as start-ups) of each applicant?
How relevant is the previous experience of applicants in
business/entrepreneurs mobility with regard to the proposed Implementation
Strategy (e.g. number of exchanges in previous EYE projects)?
How strategically chosen are the consortium partners (relevance of the
partners to the project)?
2) Quality 30
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How convincing is the proposed methodology and organisation to be put in
place (management, monitoring, process to promote success stories and best
practices of the consortia)?
How suitable is the proposed quality assurance model (trainings, actions for
quality assurance)?
To what extent will the Quality Manual requirements be followed by all
partners?
To what extent are the proposed procedures for resolution of problems
relevant and will ensure high quality of performance of each partner?
How clear are the provisions proposed for necessary adjustments
(flexibility)?
3) Impact on target audience 20
To what extent is the strategy ambitious and to what extent would the
management and monitoring capacity of the Lead Intermediary Organisation
(i.e. coordinator) be likely to ensure the expected impact?
To what extent is the project able to address the right target audience in an
efficient way?
To what extent does the proposal target in particular start-ups in their early
stage in order to increase the new entrepreneurs' knowledge in order and
maximise the long-term impact of the exchange?
4) Resource effectiveness 20
To what extent does the consortium team ensure a successful implementation
of the strategy both in terms of quantity and quality (per work package, per
task and per partner)?
Maximum total score 100
In order to be considered for award of a Framework Partnership Agreement, proposals need to pass
an overall threshold of 70% in terms of total score. In addition, thresholds of 50% will be applied to
each individual award criterion described above, in order to ensure a consistent minimum quality
for all award criteria. Proposals will be ranked according to their total score.
10. LEGAL COMMITMENTS
Framework Partnership Agreements (FPA)
EASME will sign with each successful consortium an FPA covering the whole implementing period
(2016-2021). It will lay down the general rules applicable to the cooperation between EASME and
the consortium (European Partnership) and will include in an annex the approved Implementation
Strategy. The FPA does not constitute an obligation for the EASME to award specific grants to the
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European Partnerships. The FPA entitles consortia to submit a work programme for specific
agreements of limited duration upon invitation of EASME.
Specific Agreements (SGA)
The Agency may award specific grants for actions to be implemented under the FPA. Following the
award of FPAs, consortia will be invited to submit a detailed work programme covering activities of
the first two years of FPA implementation (1/02/2017-31/01/2019). This work programme is
intended to translate in specific actions the above mentioned Implementation Strategy of the FPA.
Invitations to submit proposals for Specific Agreements will be restricted to FPA awardees.
The approved work programme and budget will be annexed to a Specific Agreement (SGA) that
will be concluded with EPs having submitted the best ranked proposals and considering the
availability of budget appropriations.
Depending on budget availability, EASME may invite FPA awardees to submit detailed work
programmes for other periods of implementation.
ADMINISTRATIVE REVIEW PROCEDURES
Unsuccessful applicants may request the review of the admissibility/eligibility procedure or the
evaluation procedure with regard to their proposal as specified in section V of the Guide for
applicants.
11. FINANCIAL PROVISIONS
To provide full transparency to the applicants, this section 11 presents the financial provisions governing the award of specific grants under the Framework Partnerships awarded following this call for proposals. Nevertheless, the purpose of this current call for proposals is not the award of specific grants for actions.
11.1 General principles
a) Non-cumulative award
An action may only receive one grant from the EU budget.
In no circumstances shall the same costs be financed twice by the Union budget. To ensure
this, applicants shall indicate the sources and amounts of Union funding received or applied
for the same action or part of the action or for its functioning during the same financial year
as well as any other funding received or applied for the same action.21
b) Non-retroactivity
No grant may be awarded retrospectively for actions already completed.
A grant may be awarded for an action which has already begun only where the applicant can
demonstrate the need to start the action before the grant agreement is signed.
21 Directive 2004/18/EC of 31 March 2004 on the coordination of procedures for the award of public work contracts,
public supply contracts and public service contracts (Official Journal of the European Union L 134/114 of
30.04.2004).
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In such cases, costs eligible for financing may not have been incurred prior to the date of
submission of the grant application
c) Co-financing
Co-financing means that the resources which are necessary to carry out the action may not
be entirely provided by the EU grant. It may take the form of:
the beneficiary's own resources;
income generated by the action;
financial contributions from third parties.
d) Balanced budget
The estimated budget of the action is to be attached to the application form. It must have
revenue and expenditure in balance.
The budget must be drawn up in euros.
Applicants which foresee that costs will not be incurred in euros, are invited to use the
exchange rate published on the Info-euro website available at:
Where the implementation of the action requires the award of procurement contracts
(implementation contracts), the beneficiary must award the contract to the bid offering best
value for money or the lowest price (as appropriate), avoiding conflicts of interests and
retain the documentation for the event of an audit.
In the event of procurement exceeding EUR 60 000, the beneficiary must abide by special
rules as referred in the grant agreement annexed to the call. Moreover the beneficiary is
expected to clearly document the tendering procedure and retain the documentation for the
event of an audit.
Entities acting in their capacity of contracting authorities in the meaning of Directive
2004/18/EC22
(or 2014/24/EU23
) or contracting entities in the meaning of Directive
2004/17/EC24
(or 2014/25/EU25
) shall abide by the applicable national public procurement
rules. The beneficiary is expected to clearly document the tendering procedure and retain the
documentation for the event of an audit.
22 Directive 2004/18/EC of 31 March 2004 on the coordination of procedures for the award of public work contracts,
public supply contracts and public service contracts (Official Journal of the European Union L 134/114 of
30.04.2004). 23 Directive 2014/24/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 February 2014 on public procurement
and repealing Directive 2004/18/EC (OJ L 94, 28.3.2014, p. 65).
24 Directive 2004/17/EC of 31 March 2004 coordinating the procurement procedures of entities operating in the water,
energy, transport and postal services sectors (Official Journal of the European Union L 134/114 of 30.04.2004). 25 Directive 2014/25/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 February 2014 on procurement by
entities operating in the water, energy, transport and postal services sectors and repealing Directive 2004/17/EC (OJ
Proposals must be submitted in accordance with the requirements of section 5 and by the deadline
specified under section 3.
Electronic submission
27 Commission Regulation (EC) No 105/2007 of 1 February 2007 amending the annexes to Regulation (EC) No
1059/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the establishment of a common classification of
territorial units for statistics (NUTS) (Official Journal of the European Union L 39 of 10.02.2007).
28 Official Journal of the European Union L 8/1 of 12.01.2001. 29 Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012 on the
financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union and repealing Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No
1605/2002 (OJ L 298 of 26.10.2012, p. 1) as amended.