This Guide provides information for grant beneficiaries of EU funds in the Western Balkans and Türkiye on how to exempt them from paying VAT. The document includes information about the procedures for registering for VAT exemption and obtaining VAT exemptions (or refunds) when making purchases. This guide has been prepared by the EU TACSO 3 team as a ready reference to VAT exemption and VAT refund requirements for civil society organisations funded by the European Union in the Western Balkans and Türkiye. It is aimed primarily at civil society organisations in the region that are recipients of EU grant funds, either country-level or regional. The guide is compiled from available documentation and guidance and will be updated regularly if there are changes.
View moreA comprehensive report from the Workshop on Assessment of Proposals for FSTP Implementers from the Western Balkans and Türkiye provides details from the workshop, including Q&As, case studies, some key issues raised by participants and expert's responses and recommendations provided.
View moreMany questions are often repeated among those interested in becoming FSTP implementors and those already implementing projects with included FSTP components. The European Commission combined those most repeated questions into one guiding document and published the frequently asked questions on FSTP.
View moreThis training was organised by the EU TACSO 3 capacity-building team to develop further and build the capacities for monitoring FSTP grant contracts based on practical examples, case studies, and peer-to-peer learning. The key topics of the training related to phases of the monitoring process, site visits as monitoring tools, issues and challenges and interpretation of data collection and reporting.
View moreA gender mainstreaming training programme for FSTP implementers was organised with the purpose to support new FSTP providers who have received regional CSF grants.
View morePresentations cover topics like FSTP, sub-granting procedures, human rights mechanism strengthening, Roma inclusion, organisational sustainability, etc.
View moreThe brochure presents a collection of good practices on FSTP - various existing approaches, experiences and lessons learned from the field. It is structured around three main topics: Call and Selection Procedures, Capacity Development, and Monitoring and Reporting to EU/Communication Results. The brochure is intended for civil society partners, potential future applicants, implementers of EU support and DG NEAR staff in delegations and headquarters.
View moreThe webinar contributed to sharing knowledge and experiences regarding grant narrative and financial reporting. It also aimed to contribute to the capacity building of the CSOs in the Western Balkans and Turkey and to improve reporting skills and the quality of the reports.
View moreThe Needs Assessment Report focuses on each country’s specific information gathering and analysis of the institutional areas that need to be strengthened. The report also highlights the capabilities of the country’s CSOs. This assessment allows for each country to make a more tailored strategy to apply to better support the CSOs.
View moreIn the period from 19 to 22 July 2010, representatives from the Unit for Cooperation with NGOs realized a study visit to the Office for Cooperation with NGOs of the Republic of Croatia. The study visit aimed to familiarize the participants with the grant schemes management system intended for the CSOs, the activities of the institutions in the Republic of Croatia that implement the projects financed by EU funds (IPA program), and the introduction of a centralized and decentralized implementation system.
View moreThis report’s overall purpose is to provide a basis for refining TACSO’s programme support to both civil societies and government authorities of the IPA countries for establishing the full range of institutional arrangements necessary for the sustainable development of effective civil society. To this end, the report concludes by identifying priorities for strengthening the process in each country and by making specific recommendations to the TACSO project in general and TACSO country teams, in particular, to support the process in practical ways.
View moreA comparative summary of the eight-country CSO needs assessments. This report’s overall purpose is to provide a basis for refining TACSO’s programme of capacity development support to civil society organizations in the IPA countries, both at the regional and national levels. The report is also intended to equip local and international development agencies, as well as governments in the IPA countries, with the information necessary to instigate further appropriate and responsive organizational support and capacity-building actions for CSOs and civil society more generally.
View moreThe Albanian CSO sector is relatively underdeveloped. There are around 1600 registered CSOs, but roughly 450 of them are active (2011 surveys). Most active CSOs are located in Tirana which also has local offices and is active at the community level. In general, the membership base of associations is limited.
View moreThe guidelines are a form of instructions that are intended to ease the process of VAT exemption for newly awarded EU projects. The information within this set of guidelines is based on each country’s specific requirements in terms of VAT exemption for EU/IPA-funded projects.
View moreNeeds Assessment Report for CSOs in 2010 recognized the lack of transparency of CSOs. The report recommended further actions on improvement of CSOs' transparency. The main purpose of the publication “Annual Financial Reports of CSOs in Montenegro – 2010” is to contribute to the improvement of relations between civil society and external stakeholders.
View moreThis Needs Assessment methodology was designed to guide the assignment and represents a comprehensive set of activities and approaches that produced the key deliverables promptly, while also methodically reaching and engaging project teams in M&E functions and activities using experiential learning approaches aimed at strengthening their Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) capacity through the tailor-made training conducted by the Consultant.
View moreThe report presents an update of a similar report carried out in 2009, not a comprehensive new research. Information provided is based on the desktop research of relevant documentation, including legal and financial legislation, policy documents, previous civil society mappings and research, insight into the Registry of CSOs, input produced by the Local Advisory Group (LAG) members as well as inputs provided by representatives of 48 CSOs during the consultation sessions organized in Belgrade, Novi Sad and Niš in mid-September 2011. Additionally, the report includes preliminary data of the current baseline survey on the CSO sector in Serbia in the period of August – September 2011.
View moreThe IPA Region CSO Environment and Capacities: Update of the Regional Needs Assessment and Recommendations Report represents a compilation of individual country Needs Assessment Reports from the Western Balkan countries and Turkey. Even though there are differences and specificities in the CSO environment and capacities among the countries covered by the project Technical Assistance for Civil Society Organisations (TACSO) in the Western Balkans and Turkey, a substantive regional perspective or unification may still be observed in all aspects that include the legal framework governing the registration and operations of the CSOS, government – CSO relations, government funding for the CSOs, human resources, external relations and material and financial capacities.
View moreThis study is one of eight country needs assessments of civil society capacities conducted as a preliminary activity within the EC-funded project Technical Assistance to Civil Society (TACSO) in IPA Countries (EuropeAid/127427/C/SER/Multi/5 – additional services). The study aims to provide a comprehensive assessment of civil society in Montenegro and the environment that it works in, including its strengths and weaknesses, its impacts to date and the challenges it faces to its further development.
View moreThis study is one of eight country needs assessments of civil society capacities conducted as a preliminary activity within the EC-funded project Technical Assistance to Civil Society (TACSO) in IPA Countries (EuropeAid/127427/C/SER/Multi/5 – additional services). The study aims to provide an update on the comprehensive assessment of civil society in Bosnia and Herzegovina that was conducted in 2009. This updated study also contains new developments in the environment in which civil society operates. The study provides insight into the strengths and weaknesses of civil society, its impacts to date and the challenges it faces to its further development.
View moreThis study is one of eight country needs assessments of civil society capacities conducted as a preliminary activity within the EC-funded project Technical Assistance to Civil Society (TACSO) in IPA Countries (EuropeAid/127427/C/SER/Multi/5 – additional services). The revised needs assessment aims to provide a comprehensive assessment of civil society in Albania and the relevant working environment, including its strengths, weaknesses, and its impacts to date, as well as the challenges it faces in its further development.
View moreThis study is one of eight country needs assessments of civil society capacities conducted as a preliminary activity within the EC-funded project Technical Assistance to Civil Society (TACSO) in IPA Countries. The study aims to provide a comprehensive assessment of civil society in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and the environment that it works in, including its strengths and weaknesses, its impacts to date and the challenges it faces to its further development.
View moreThis study is one of eight country needs assessments of civil society capacities conducted as a preliminary activity within the EC-funded project Technical Assistance to Civil Society (TACSO) in IPA Countries. The study is to provide a comprehensive assessment of civil society in Turkey and the environment that it works in, including its strengths and weaknesses, its impacts to date and the challenges it faces to its further development.
View moreThe education cycle aimed to enhance project proposal writing skills of civil society organizations representatives located out of bigger centers to increase the capacity of rural CSOs in understanding administrative and evaluation criteria for the selection of applications and to increase the number of small and rural CSOs to be able to diversify their fundraising portfolio.
View moreTACSO BiH completed Second Educational Cycle on PCM/ Project Proposal Writing-towards domestic/local sources of funding based on using a logical frame approach (EU application procedure for mostly rural-based and less experienced civil society organizations from all over Bosnia and Herzegovina.
View moreWithin the scope of sharing experiences with civil society in the Western Balkans, TACSO supported a study visit to Croatia to examine the mechanisms for the participation of disadvantaged groups in the constitution-building process. The study visit was designed as a part of the project “The Disadvantaged as an actor in the Constitutional Process” which is planned to be executed with the collaboration of ÖZEV, Öz-Ge Der and Cappadocia Women and Youth Association to ensure the active participation of women, children and people with disabilities to the constitutional process and related laws/regulations/statutes on a common platform.
View moreThe basic purpose of the publication ‘Annual Financial Report of Organisations of Civil Society in Bosnia and Herzegovina – 2011’ is to present to the broad public the results of the equated survey that the Center for Civil Society Promotion (CPCD) has conducted among domestic non-government organizations (NGOs) with the basic purpose to collect relevant information on main sources, height and ways of spending of funds that NGOs have used to finance their regular statutory activities in 2011.
View moreRegional progress report on the results of the National Activity Plans agreed upon during the conference on “Cooperation between Local Self-Governmental Institutions and CSOs in the Western Balkans and Turkey”, held in Bečići in February 2013.
View moreFollowing the first Value Added Tax (VAT) Guidelines that were produced in June 2011, this VAT guideline is now updated to reflect the changes, if any, in each of the countries. The biggest change is seen in Albania, which in June 2011 was not included in the first set of Guidelines because at that time it was not possible to provide adequate guidelines on the VAT procedures in the country. Due to the joint efforts of the Albanian civil society, TACSO Albania and the European Union Delegation (EUD) in Albania, instructions were issued for VAT exemptions that target Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) funded through the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA).
View moreThe main objective of the assessment was to identify the capacities of Croatian CSOs and their interest in IDC & HA. This assessment could assist the Department for IDC & HA of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs (MFEA) in improving the participation of CSOs in the creation and implementation of programs and with consultation processes concerning IDC & HA on the EU level.
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