The European Commission has launched a call for applications on the Fight Against Corruption.

The call for applications will fund activities supporting the fight against corruption in budgeting and public procurement at local levels, risk assessment and prevention of corruption in sectors with high corruption risks, prevention of the use of financial and professional services for corruption and for laundering proceeds of corruption, activities offering support for civil society and citizens to expose corrupt practices, activities supporting and providing legal aid and technical assistance for whistle-blowers, as well as research on methodology aiming at exposing corruption in law making and law enforcement.

Project applications submitted under the present call for proposals must address at least one of the following priorities:

• Preventing corruption in high risk sectors, including by promoting tools for risk assessment and risk management and tools for civil oversight and investigative journalism and for assisting whistle-blowers with technical and legal aid;
• Assessing the impact of implemented anti-corruption measures;
• Enhancing the effectiveness of corruption prosecution, particularly as regards complex cross-border cases;
• Enhancing the crosslinks with the risks of organised crime infiltration in the public systems with corruption as enabling element;
• Implementing best practices across the EU.

Projects must be aiming to achieve one or more of the following outcomes:

• Develop data and risk management tools that enable civil oversight in areas with high corruption risks and significant economic and social impact (public procurement, healthcare corruption, interaction between business and politics);
• Develop tools promoting an integrated approach to measuring progress in preventing, detecting, prosecuting and sanctioning corruption and to assessing impact of corruption and of anti-corruption measures;
• Develop practical tools that enable the prevention and prosecution of the use of financial and professional services for corruption and for laundering proceeds of complex corruption crimes with a cross-border dimension;
• Enhance communication, coordination and cooperation between enforcement authorities in Member States with other relevant authorities at national (inter alia audit institutions, tax and competition authorities, FIUs, financial institutions) and international level (e.g. Europol);
• Promote the implementation of best practices and data exchange at EU level;
• Study the impact that COVID-19 has had on four main pillars of the corruption system: judicial system, anti-corruption framework, freedom of media, checks and balances and other issues, so as to better orient policies in the future;
• Measure corruption and develop indicators.

Funding Information

The total budget earmarked for the co-financing of projects under this call for proposals is estimated at EUR 2 400 000 (two million five hundred thousand euros).

Eligibility Criteria

• The following entities can apply as lead applicants and co-applicants:
  • public bodies;
  • non-profit-making private entities;
• The following entities can only apply as co-applicants:
  • international organisations;
• The following are not eligible, neither as applicants nor as co-applicants:
  • Union Agencies;
  • natural persons.
• Affiliated entities, i.e. legal entities having a legal or capital link with applicants, shall take part in the action as individual co-applicants in order to declare eligible costs unless they are affiliated to a public body.
• All EU Member States, with the exception of Denmark.
• International organisations can be established outside the above-mentioned countries.
• United Kingdom is not bound by Regulation (EU) No. 513/2014 establishing the ISF Police instrument and its implementing decisions and UK entities are therefore not eligible to participate under this call.

For more information, visit European Commission.