You won't learn from this article when we will announce the next calls for proposals and who will be able to participate. However, you will learn why this is the case and what we are doing to launch the next calls as soon as possible.
In a nutshell – we are finishing the third edition of the EEA and Norway Grants and starting the fourth.
Questions (for now) without answers
We are in the space between financial frameworks, and this is the main reason we cannot currently answer your questions, which we receive almost daily.
Most often, you ask us:
- "What will the money from the fourth edition of the EEA and Norway Grants be used for?",
- "When is the first call for… (here you most often ask about NGOs and companies)?"
- "I would like to do / build / develop… Do you have any offer for me?".
In this article, we would like to tell you what we are doing now to have answers as soon as possible.
End of the third edition
First of all, we are finishing the third edition of the EEA and Norway Grants. We are not planning any more calls for proposals.
April 30, 2024, was the deadline for eligible expenditures for most projects implemented with the help of these funds. This means that expenses incurred by beneficiaries up to that time can be reimbursed. There are, of course, exceptions to this rule, but in short, projects could be financed from the EEA and Norway Grants until the end of April 2024.
If you are interested in what has been achieved with these funds, we encourage you to visit the news section. You will find information about conferences summarizing individual programs organized by the operators and a summary of the entire third edition, prepared by the Ministry of Development Funds and Regional Policy.
In 2025, we will also be closing the Bilateral Cooperation Fund and Technical Assistance.
The eligibility of expenditures in the Bilateral Cooperation Fund ends on April 30, 2025. The fund is part of the EEA and Norway Grants for Poland. Its goal is to strengthen bilateral relations between the Donor States (Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein) and the Beneficiary States. The Bilateral Cooperation Fund financed interesting initiatives, including:
- the international film festival on penitentiary issues "Prison Movie",
- the "BeFORme" call for proposals for NGOs for activities connecting generations and allowing for the exchange of experiences with entities from Norway,
- the call for proposals for entities that wanted to implement activities in the field of green transformation.
In August, the eligibility of expenditures in the Technical Assistance ends. This is a part of the EEA and Norway Grants that acts like "oil" in a car engine. It funds, for example, the salaries of employees dealing with funds or expenditures on communication activities. It's simply about ensuring that the EEA and Norway Grants implementation system works correctly.
Programme Operators are currently preparing final reports on the implementation of their programmes. We, the National Focal Point, are also preparing our Final Strategic Report. The documents will be sent to the Financial Mechanism Office (FMO) in Brussels. The FMO will analyze them and, at the very end, send us a letter informing us about the completion of the third edition of the EEA and Norway Grants.
The fourth edition is coming
The new funding period of the EEA and Norway Grants will be even more beneficial for Poland. Our country will receive almost €925 million. Once again, it will be the most of all countries benefiting from these funds.
The three main goals that the funds from the new allocation will go to are:
- the green transformation of Europe,
- democracy, the rule of law,
- human rights, social inclusion, and resilience.
Currently, negotiations between Poland and Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway are ongoing regarding the detailed distribution of the pool for Poland. After their completion, we will know for what purposes, programmes, and in what amount we will allocate "our" €925 million. This information will be included in the Memorandum of Understanding, an international agreement between Poland and Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway. The signing of the memorandum is planned for the first half of 2025.
After the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding, individual programmes will be created. Their operators will also be appointed. Then we will be able to determine the dates of calls for proposals and answer your questions.
Civil Society Fund
Part of the allocation for Poland is the Civil Society Fund (CSF). Almost €95 million has been allocated to our country from this source. Formally, the CSF is not part of the Memorandum of Understanding because it is managed directly by Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway.
Currently, consultations and information meetings are taking place in individual countries. The FMO has scheduled a meeting for Poland on January 22 in Warsaw. We would like to point out that the date has changed, as the meeting was originally planned for February 5.
Until April 8, 2025, the FMO is accepting applications from entities that want to be CSF operators in individual countries. The operator will be responsible for implementing the CSF on behalf of Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway.