12.1.2018

Official Journal of the European Union

C 9/6

Final Report of the Hearing Officer (1)

(Case AT.39740 — Google Search (Shopping))

(2018/C 9/07)

INTRODUCTION

(1)

The draft decision concerns the more favourable positioning and display by Google Inc., in its general search results pages, of its own comparison shopping service compared to competing comparison shopping services.

(2)

On 30 November 2010, having received several complaints (2), the Commission initiated proceedings, within the meaning of Article 11(6) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1/2003 (3) and Article 2(1) of Commission Regulation (EC) No 773/2004 (4), in respect of Google Inc., in relation to a number of practices. Pursuant to that Article 11(6), this relieved the competition authorities of the Member States of their competence to apply Articles 101 and 102 TFEU in respect of these practices. As a result, a number of complaints were transferred to the Commission from the competition authorities of certain Member States (5). Following the initiation of proceedings, the Commission received several more complaints (6). In April 2012, Cases 39768 (Ciao), 39775 (eJustice/1PlusV), 39845 (VfT), 39863 (BDZV&VDZ), 39866 (Elfvoetbal), 39867 (Euro-Cities/HotMaps), 39875 (nntp.it), 39897 (Microsoft) and 39975 (Twenga) were merged with Case 39740 (Foundem). The documents that had been registered in these cases were subsequently put into a single file under case number 39740 — Google Search. The Commission continued the procedure under case number 39740.

(3)

On 13 March 2013, in accordance with Article 9 of Regulation (EC) No 1/2003, the Commission addressed to Google Inc. a preliminary assessment (the ‘Preliminary Assessment’) in which the Commission expressed concerns that Google Inc. may violate Article 102 TFEU and Article 54 of the EEA Agreement by, among other business practices, the favourable treatment, within Google Inc.’s general search pages, of links to Google Inc.’s own specialised search services as compared to links to competing specialised search services.

(4)

Google Inc., while denying that any of the business practices covered by the Preliminary Assessment violated Article 102 TFEU or Article 54 of the EEA Agreement, submitted commitments to address the Commission’s competition concerns in relation to these practices. Google Inc. submitted a first set of commitments to the Commission on 3 April 2013, a second set of commitments on 21 October 2013 and a third set on 31 January 2014.

(5)

Between 27 May 2014 and 11 August 2014, the Commission sent letters under Article 7(1) of Regulation (EC) No 773/2004 to complainants who had lodged a complaint before 27 May 2014 (the ‘Article 7(1) Letters’) (7). In those letters, the Commission outlined its provisional assessment that the third set of commitments could address the Commission’s competition concerns expressed in the Preliminary Assessment and that therefore the Commission intended to reject their complaints (8).

(6)

Several of the addressees of the Article 7(1) Letters considered that they had not received sufficient access, under Article 8(1) of Regulation (EC) No 773/2004, to the documents on which the Commission based its provisional assessment. They requested access to these documents under Article 7(2)(b) of Decision 2011/695/EU. In responding to these requests, the Hearing Officer clarified that the procedural rights of complainants are not as far-reaching as the right to a fair hearing of undertakings subject to an investigation by the Commission. In particular, the right of access of the addressees of Article 7(1) Letters does not have the same scope as the right of access to the Commission file afforded to addressees of statements of objections. However, since the Article 7(1) Letters had specifically relied on the Preliminary Assessment (9), the Hearing Officer considered that a redacted version of the Preliminary Assessment had to be made available to the addressees of the Article 7(1) Letters. Such access was then provided by DG Competition at the Hearing Officer’s behest.

(7)

The addressees of the Article 7(1) Letters made known their views in writing (10). After analysing the views of these complainants, the Commission considered that it was not in a position to adopt a decision under Article 9 of Regulation (EC) No 1/2003 that would make binding the third set of commitments and conclude that there were no longer grounds for action by the Commission. The Commission brought this to the attention of Google Inc. on 4 September 2014.

THE STATEMENT OF OBJECTIONS

(8)

On 15 April 2015, the Commission adopted a Statement of Objections (the ‘SO’) setting out its preliminary conclusion that Google Inc.’s more favourable positioning and display, in its general search results pages, of its own comparison shopping service compared to competing comparison shopping services constitutes an abuse of a dominant position and is incompatible with Article 102 TFEU and Article 54 of the EEA Agreement.

(9)

Access-to-file was provided to Google Inc. on 27 April 2015 by means of an encrypted DVD. Data room procedures were organised in June and July 2015 (11). Google Inc. made a request under Article 7(1) of Decision 2011/695/EU for access to certain data of a similar nature to the data to which access was provided by means of the data room procedures but which had not been so provided. Following the Hearing Officer’s intervention, letters were sent by DG Competition under Article 8(1) of Decision 2011/695/EU to the data providers concerned, informing them of the reasons for the Commission’s intention to disclose their data by means of a data room procedure. Following the absence of objections on the part of the data providers concerned within the time limit set, the data room procedure was subsequently implemented.

(10)

Google Inc. also made a request to the Hearing Officer under Article 7(1) of Decision 2011/695/EU for access to (i) certain parts of the data room report drawn up by its external advisers as part of the data room procedure; and (ii) the full version of a response to a particular request by the Commission for information (‘RFI’). Following the Hearing Officer’s intervention, access was provided to a version of those parts of the data room report that was substantially less redacted and which was sufficiently meaningful for the purposes of the proper exercise of Google Inc.’s right to be heard. In relation to the response to the RFI, at the Hearing Officer’s behest, DG Competition first obtained from the RFI respondent concerned a less-redacted version of its response that could be shared with Google Inc., which was so shared. Secondly, DG Competition informed this respondent, in accordance with Article 8(1) of Decision 2011/695/EU, of the reasons for the Commission’s intention to disclose the information still redacted in the less-redacted version by means of a confidentiality ring made up of certain of Google Inc.’s external counsel. Following the lack of objections on the part of this RFI respondent, and on receipt by the Commission of appropriate confidentiality undertakings, this was implemented.

(11)

Google Inc. responded to the SO on 27 August 2015. It did not request an oral hearing.

THE SUPPLEMENTARY STATEMENT OF OBJECTIONS

(12)

On 14 July 2016 (12), following the reorganisation of Google Inc. and the creation of Alphabet Inc. as a holding company sitting above Google Inc., the Commission initiated proceedings in relation to Alphabet Inc. On the same date, the Commission addressed a supplementary statement of objections (the ‘SSO’) to Google Inc. and Alphabet Inc. (hereinafter together ‘Google’), to which the SO was annexed (13). The SO was also therefore addressed to Alphabet Inc.

(13)

Among other things, the SSO sets out the reasons why the Commission had reverted to the procedure under Article 7 of Regulation (EC) No 1/2003, indicating that this was without prejudice to the Commission’s position on whether it was so obliged.

(14)

Access-to-file was provided to Google on 27 July 2016 by means of an encrypted DVD. A data room procedure was organised, starting on 14 September 2016.

(15)

On 26 September 2016, Google addressed a request to me under Article 7(1) of Decision 2011/695/EU, seeking further access to 20 documents and indicating its readiness to accept restricted disclosure, where necessary, by means of data room procedures or confidentiality rings. Following my intervention, less redacted versions were disclosed, in some cases by means of a data room procedure (which opened on 27 October 2016) or confidentiality ring procedures by which access was provided only to specified external advisers nominated by Google to examine these documents on its behalf.

(16)

On 3 November 2016, Google responded to the SSO. It did not request an oral hearing.

THE LETTER OF FACTS

(17)

On 28 February 2017, the Commission addressed a Letter of Facts to Google. On 1 March 2017, access to the post-SSO file was provided to Google by means of an encrypted CD. A data room procedure was implemented starting on 13 March 2017 in relation to the information that had been claimed to be confidential by its providers but for which they had accepted restricted access through a data room procedure.

(18)

On 20 March 2017, Google made a request to me under Article 7(1) of Decision 2011/695/EU seeking further access to (i) certain redacted (parts of) documents that were provided to Google as part of access to the post-SSO file or in a confidentiality ring following my intervention in 2016; and (ii) notes of meetings with certain third parties, in particular complainants, that were fuller than those provided to Google already. I rejected Google’s request in relation to (i) considering that access to the redacted parts of the documents was not necessary for the purposes of the effective exercise of Google’s right to be heard, and in relation to (ii) that no such fuller notes existed on the Commission file (14).

(19)

On 29 March 2017, Google addressed me a letter seeking that the Commission withdraw the Letter of Facts of 28 February 2017 and either issue a supplementary statement of objections or a new letter of facts. In the light of the requirement under Article 3(7) of Decision 2011/695/EU that any issue regarding the effective exercise of the procedural rights of the parties concerned is first to be raised with DG Competition, I referred the matter to DG Competition, which replied to Google on 31 March 2017.

(20)

On 2 April 2017, Google addressed me an email seeking access to certain parts of the data room report drawn up by Google’s external advisers as part of the data room procedure that started on 13 March 2017, containing information which was considered confidential by DG Competition but non-confidential by Google’s external advisers. Following my intervention, the data room was reopened beginning on 6 April 2017, primarily to allow Google’s nominated external advisers, if they so chose, to produce revised data room reports. In order to respect the prima facie confidential nature of the information, those arguments that could not be made in a non-confidential manner were made in a confidential version of the data room report for the Commission’s file. On 18 April 2017, Google submitted its response to the Letter of Facts.

PARTICIPATION OF COMPLAINANTS AND INTERESTED THIRD PERSONS IN THE PROCEEDINGS

(21)

In accordance with Article 6(1) of Regulation (EC) No 773/2004, those complainants whose complaints concerned matters to which the SO or SSO relate have been provided with non-confidential versions of these.

(22)

A number of persons have been admitted by the Hearing Officer to the proceedings as interested third persons having demonstrated a sufficient interest for the purposes of Article 27(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1/2003, Article 13(1) of Regulation (EC) No 773/2004, and Article 5(1), (2) of Decision 2011/695/EU (15). They were informed of the nature and subject matter of the proceedings in accordance with Article 13(1) of Regulation (EC) No 773/2004, and were provided with an opportunity to make their views known in writing. One applicant did not provide further written submissions in response to a letter under Article 5(3) of Decision 2011/695/EU informing it of the reasons why the Hearing Officer considered that it had not shown a sufficient interest to be heard.

EXTENSIONS

(23)

The Hearing Officer has been addressed with requests for extensions of the time limits set by the Commission for responses to the SO, the SSO, the Letter of Facts, a request for information by decision under Article 18(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1/2003, the Article 7(1) Letters, and to non-confidential versions of the SO. The Hearing Officer, having heard the director responsible, assessed these requests and, where appropriate bearing in mind the applicable provisions, extended the time limits.

PROCEDURAL POINTS RAISED BY GOOGLE IN ITS RESPONSES

(24)

The responses to the SO and SSO contain a number of arguments which are stated to describe procedural deficiencies in the Commission’s investigation.

(25)

In both the responses to the SO and the SSO, it is argued that the Commission was obliged to explain the reasons why the Commission departed from the commitments procedure under Article 9 of Regulation (EC) No 1/2003 and instead issued a statement of objections. Regardless of whether the Commission is under such an obligation, as noted at paragraph 13 above, the Commission in any event provided such reasons in the SSO.

(26)

In the response to the SO, it is argued that the SO failed to provide adequate reasons and evidence for its conclusions regarding the duration and geographic scope of the alleged infringement, which alleged failures the response described as a procedural deficiency. I do not consider, even if the SO did so fail, that these would amount to impinging upon the effective exercise of Google’s procedural rights. The SO contains the essential elements used against Google, including the facts, the characterisation of those facts and the evidence on which the Commission relied at that stage of the proceedings, so that Google could submit its arguments effectively in the administrative proceedings brought against it (16).

(27)

Similarly, in its response to the SSO, Google argues: (i) the SSO did not properly assess the evidence and therefore breached Google’s right to a sound administrative process; (ii) the SSO did not properly explain the preliminary concern or the proposed remedy and did not provide a legal assessment of the evidence listed and therefore breached Google’s rights of defence; and (iii) the SSO provides no support for its remedy requirement. I have examined these arguments and the Commission’s statements of objections in this case, and I have come to the conclusion that the effective exercise of Google’s procedural rights has been respected. At base, the issues raised in Google’s arguments are matters of substance and I note that these have been addressed in the draft decision.

(28)

Google also argues in its response to the SSO that the Commission has failed to provide Google with sufficiently informative minutes of meetings with complainants. The Court of Justice of the European Union has however not specifically ruled that the Commission is obliged to draw up, or make accessible, minutes of meetings or telephone conversations if the Commission does not intend to rely upon information disclosed in those meetings or conversations (17). The draft decision does not rely upon any such information. Furthermore, Google has not suggested or indicated that any information of an exculpatory nature was disclosed in such meetings or conversations, or specified the exculpatory evidence sought as relevant for the purposes of the present case (18). The Commission has in any event drawn up and provided access to succinct notes of the meetings and conversations with the names of the parties and the topics covered to the extent consistent with the protection of business secrets and other confidential information. In the framework of the access-to-file exercise, the Commission has also disclosed to Google any documents that were provided by individuals or undertakings in the context of such meetings or telephone conversations.

THE DRAFT DECISION

(29)

The Commission, after hearing Google in writing, takes the view in the draft decision that by positioning and displaying more favourably, in Google Inc.’s general search results pages, Google Inc.’s own comparison shopping service compared to competing comparison shopping services, the undertaking consisting of Google Inc. and also, since 2 October 2015, of Alphabet Inc. has infringed Article 102 TFEU and Article 54 of the EEA Agreement. It orders that undertaking to bring an end to the infringement and to refrain from any practice which may have the same or equivalent object or effect. It imposes a fine.

(30)

Pursuant to Article 16(1) of Decision 2011/695/EU, I have reviewed the draft decision in order to consider whether the draft decision deals only with objections in respect of which the parties have been afforded the opportunity of making known their views. My conclusion is that it does.

(31)

Overall, I consider that the effective exercise of procedural rights has been respected in this case.

Brussels, 26 June 2017.

Joos STRAGIER

(1) Pursuant to Articles 16 and 17 of Decision 2011/695/EU of the President of the European Commission of 13 October 2011 on the function and terms of reference of the hearing officer in certain competition proceedings (OJ L 275, 20.10.2011, p. 29) (‘Decision 2011/695/EU’).

(2) In the order of receipt by the Commission, these complaints were from Infederation Ltd (‘Foundem’); Ciao GmbH (‘Ciao’) (following reallocation to the Commission from the Bundeskartellamt (Germany) in accordance with the Commission Notice on cooperation within the Network of Competition Authorities (OJ C 101, 27.4.2004, p. 43); eJustice.fr (‘eJustice’) which complaint was later supplemented and joined by eJustice’s parent company 1plusV; and Verband freier Telefonbuchverleger (‘VfT’).

(3) Council Regulation (EC) No 1/2003 of 16 December 2002 on the implementation of the rules on competition laid down in Articles 81 and 82 of the Treaty (OJ L 1, 4.1.2003, p. 1).

(4) Commission Regulation (EC) No 773/2004 of 7 April 2004 relating to the conduct of proceedings by the Commission pursuant to Articles 81 and 82 of the EC Treaty (OJ L 123, 27.4.2004, p. 18).

(5) Complaints were reallocated from the Bundeskartellamt (complaints from Euro-Cities AG (‘Euro-Cities’); Hot Maps Medien GmbH (‘Hot Maps’); joint complaint from the Bundesverband Deutscher Zeitungsverleger (‘BDZV’) and Verband Deutscher Zeitschriftenverleger (‘VDZ’) which complaint was later supplemented) and the Autorità della Concorrenza e del Mercato (Italy) (complaint by Mr Sessolo (‘nntp.it’)).

(6) In the order of receipt by the Commission, these complaints were from Elf BV (‘Elf’); Microsoft Corporation (‘Microsoft’); La Asociación de Editores de Diarios Españoles (‘AEDE’); Twenga SA (‘Twenga’); Streetmap EU Ltd (‘Streetmap’); Expedia Inc. (‘Expedia’); Odigeo Group (‘Odigeo’); TripAdvisor Inc. (‘TripAdvisor’); joint complaint from Nextag Inc. (‘Nextag’) and Guenstiger.de GmbH (‘Guenstiger’); Visual Meta GmbH (‘Visual Meta’); and the Initiative for a Competitive Online Marketplace (‘ICOMP’) which later supplemented this complaint.

(7) The Commission had also received complaints from the Bureau européen des unions de consommateurs AISBL (‘BEUC’); the Open Internet Project (‘OIP’), and Deutsche Telekom AG (‘Deutsche Telekom’) before that date. On or after 27 May 2014 and before 15 April 2015, the Commission received complaints from Yelp Inc. (‘Yelp’); HolidayCheck AG (‘HolidayCheck’); and Trivago GmbH (‘Trivago’).

(8) No such Article 7(1) Letter was sent to one complainant to whom this did not apply.

(9) See paragraph 3 above.

(10) Streetmap and nntp.it did not provide written observations to the Article 7(1) Letters addressed to them within the time limit set and, under Article 7(3) of Regulation (EC) No 773/2004, their complaints are therefore deemed to have been withdrawn.

(11) A data room procedure is a restricted form of access by which information is disclosed to a limited number of specified advisers for a limited period of time in a secured room on the Commission’s premises, and subject to a number of restrictions and safeguards to prevent confidential information being disclosed beyond the data room. DG Competition has issued Best Practices on the disclosure of information in data rooms and also published on its website Standard Data Room Rules and Standard Non-disclosure Agreements for data room procedures.

(12) On or after the date of the SO, complaints were received from News Corporation (‘News Corp’); Tradecomet.com Ltd and Tradecomet LLC (together, ‘Tradecomet’); VG Media Gesellschaft zur Verwertung der Urheberund Leistungsschutzrechte von Medienunternehmen mbH (‘VG Media’); an additional complaint from News Corp; Getty Images Inc. (‘Getty’); and Promt GmbH (‘Promt’). Two complaints, from Microsoft and Ciao, were withdrawn.

(13) On 19 July 2016, following a reorganisation of work between the Hearing Officers, I became the Hearing Officer responsible for the case, in place of Mr Wouter Wils.

(14) Fuller notes do exist in relation to meetings with an anonymous party. The information redacted could reveal the identity of this party, and I considered that further access to this information was not necessary for the effective exercise of Google’s right to be heard.

(15) The Hearing Officer has admitted as interested third persons: Twenga*; MoneySupermarket.com Group PLC (‘MoneySupermarket’); BEUC*; Organización de Consumidores y Usuarios (‘OCU’) (OCU later informed the Commission that it no longer wished to be considered as an interested third person and Google was informed of this); Company AC; FairSearch Europe (‘FairSearch’); SARL Acheter moins cher (‘Acheter moins cher’); S.A. LeGuide.com (‘LeGuide’); Kelkoo SAS (‘Kelkoo’); Getty*; Myriad International Holdings BV (‘MIH’); and the European Technology & Travel Services Association (‘ETTSA’). Those persons marked with an * have subsequently lodged complaints and have from then on been treated as complainants.

(16) See, among others, judgment in Elf Aquitaine v Commission (T-299/08, EU:T:2011:217, paragraphs 134-136 and case law cited).

(17) See, for example, the judgment in Atlantic Container Line and others v Commission (T-191/98 and T-212/98 - T-214/98, EU:T:2003:245, paragraph 351-352).

(18) See judgment in Atlantic Container Line and others v Commission (paragraph 358).

12.1.2018

Official Journal of the European Union

C 9/15

2018 CALL FOR PROPOSALS

SIMPLE PROGRAMMES

Grants to information provision and promotion measures concerning agricultural products implemented in the internal market and in third countries in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 1144/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council

(2018/C 9/09)

1. Background and purpose of this call

1.1. Information provision and promotion measures concerning agricultural products

On 22 October 2014, the European Parliament and the Council adopted Regulation (EU) No 1144/2014 on information provision and promotion measures concerning agricultural products implemented in the internal market and in third countries and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 3/2008 (1). This Regulation is supplemented by the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/1829 (2) and the rules for its application are laid down in Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/1831 (3).

The general objective of the information provision and promotion measures is to enhance the competitiveness of the Union agricultural sector.

The specific objectives of the information provision and promotion measures are to:

(a)	increase awareness of the merits of Union agricultural products and of the high standards applicable to the production methods in the Union;

(b)	increase the competitiveness and consumption of Union agricultural products and certain food products and to raise their profile both inside and outside the Union;

(c)	increase the awareness and recognition of Union quality schemes;

(d)	increase the market share of Union agricultural products and certain food products, specifically focusing on those markets in third countries that have the highest growth potential;

(e)	restore normal market conditions in the event of serious market disturbance, loss of consumer confidence or other specific problems.

1.2. The Commission's Annual work programme for 2018

The Commission's Annual Work Programme for 2018, adopted by Implementing Decision (4) on 15 November 2017, sets out the details for the award of co-financing and the priorities for simple and multi programmes in the internal market and in third countries. It is available at the following address:

http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/promotion/annual-work-programmes/2018/index_en.htm

1.3. Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency

The Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency (hereinafter ‘Chafea’) is entrusted by the European Commission with the management of certain parts of the information provision and promotion measures concerning agricultural products implemented in the internal market and in third countries, including the launch of calls for proposals and evaluation of applications for simple programmes.

1.4. The present call for proposals

The present call for proposals relates to the implementation of simple programmes, in the framework of Section 1.2.1.1 (actions under thematic priority 1: simple programmes in the internal market) and 1.2.1.2 (actions under thematic priority 2: simple programmes in third countries) of annex I of the 2018 Annual Work Programme.

2. Objective(s) – Themes – Priorities

Section 1.2.1.1 and 1.2.1.2 of annex I of the 2018 Annual Work programme sets out the thematic priorities for actions to be co-financed through the present call (see also section 6.2 on Eligible activities below). Applications submitted in response to this call must fall under the scope of one of the 6 topics given in these sections of the Annual Work programme, otherwise they will not be considered for funding. Applicants may submit several applications for different projects under the same priority topic. Applicants may also submit several applications for different projects under different thematic priorities or topics.

3. Timetable

The deadline for submission is 12 April 2018, 17:00 CET (Central European Time).

	Stages/Deadlines	Date and time or indicative period
a)	Publication of the call for proposals	12.1.2018
b)	Deadline to submit non-IT related questions	29.3.2018 17:00 CET
c)	Deadline to reply to non-IT related questions	5.4.2018 17:00 CET
d)	Deadline for submitting applications	12.4.2018 17:00 CET
e)	Evaluation period	April-August 2018
f)	Decision by the Commission	October 2018
g)	Information to applicants by the Member States	October 2018
h)	Grant adaptation phase	October 2018-January 2019
i)	Signature of the grant agreement between Member States and the beneficiaries	< January 2019
j)	Starting date of the action	> 1.1.2019

4. Budget available

The total budget earmarked for the co-financing of actions under this call is EUR 95 000 000. The indicative amounts available per topic are indicated in the table ‘Eligible activities’ under point 6.2 below.

This amount is subject to the availability of the appropriations provided for in the general budget of the EU for 2019 following its adoption by the EU budgetary authority or provided for in the provisional twelfths. This amount is also subject to the availability of appropriations for the following 3 years taking into account the non-differentiated nature of the appropriations.

The Commission reserves the right not to distribute all the funds available.

5. Admissibility requirements

Applications must be sent no later than the submission deadline referred to in section 3.

Applications must be submitted online by the coordinator via the participant portal (electronic submission system available at: https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/opportunities/agrip/index.html

Failure to comply with the above requirements will lead to the rejection of the application.

Proposals may be submitted in any official language of the European Union. Nevertheless, when preparing their proposals, applicants should take into account that grant agreements will be managed by the Member States. Consequently, applicants are encouraged to submit their proposal in the language(s) of the Member State of origin of the proposing organisation(s) unless the Member State concerned has indicated its agreement to sign the grant agreement in English (5). To facilitate the review of proposals by independent experts who provide technical input to the evaluation, an English translation of the technical part of the proposal (part B) should preferably accompany the proposal if it is written in another EU official language.

6. Eligibility criteria

6.1. Eligible applicants

The Proposals for simple programmes can only be submitted by legal persons or other entities which do not have a legal personality under the applicable national law, provided that their representatives have the capacity to undertake legal obligations on behalf of the entity and offer guarantees for the protection of the Union's financial interests equivalent to those offered by legal persons as referred to in Article 131(2) of the Regulation (Euratom, EU) No 966/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council (6) (hereinafter ‘Financial Regulation’).

More specifically, applications from the following organisations and bodies are eligible, as referred to in Article 7(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1144/2014:

(i)

trade or inter-trade organisations, established in a Member State and representative of the sector or sectors concerned in that Member State, and in particular the interbranch organisations as referred to in Article 157 of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council (7) and groups as defined in point 2 of Article 3 of Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council (8), provided that they are representative for the name protected under the latter Regulation which is covered by that programme

(ii)	producer organisations or associations of producer organisations, as referred to in Articles 152 and 156 of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 that have been recognised by a Member State; or

(iii)

agri-food sector bodies the objective and activity of which is to provide information on, and to promote, agricultural products and which have been entrusted, by the Member State concerned, with a clearly defined public service mission in this area; those bodies must have been legally established in the Member State in question at least two years prior to the date of the call for proposals referred to in Article 8(2).

The abovementioned proposing organisations may submit a proposal provided that they are representative of the sector or product concerned by the proposal complying with conditions set out in Articles 1(1) or 1(2) of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/1829, namely:

(i)

trade or inter-trade organisation, established in a Member State, as referred to in Article 7(1)(a) of Regulation (EU) No 1144/2014 respectively, shall be deemed to be representative of the sector concerned by the programme:

—	where it accounts for at least 50 % as a proportion of the number of producers, or 50 % of the volume or value of marketable production of the product(s) or sector concerned, in the Member State concerned; or

—	where it is an interbranch organisation recognised by the Member State in accordance with Article 158 of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 or with Article 16 of Regulation (EU) No 1379/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council (9);

(ii)

a group as defined in point 2 of Article 3 of Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012 and referred to in Article 7(1)(a) of Regulation (EU) No 1144/2014, shall be deemed to be representative of the name protected under Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012 and covered by the programme, where it accounts for at least 50 % of the volume or value of marketable production of the product(s) whose name is protected;

(iii)

a producer organisation or an association of producer organisations as referred to in Article 7(1)(c) of Regulation (EU) No 1144/2014 shall be deemed to be representative of the product(s) or sector concerned by the programme where it is recognised by the Member State in accordance with Articles 154 or 156 of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 or with Article 14 of Regulation (EU) No 1379/2013;

(iv)	an agri-food sector body as referred to in Article 7(1)(d) of Regulation (EU) No 1144/2014 shall be deemed to be representative of the sector(s) concerned by the programme by means of having representatives of that product(s) or sector among its memberships.

By way of derogation from points (i) and (ii) above, lower thresholds may be accepted if the proposing organisation demonstrates in the submitted proposal that there are specific circumstances, including the evidence on the structure of the market, which would justify treating the proposing organisation as representative of the product(s) or sector concerned.

Proposals may be submitted by one or more proposing organisations, which shall all be from the same EU Member State.

Only applications from entities established in EU Member States are eligible.

For British applicants: Please be aware that eligibility criteria must be complied with for the entire duration of the grant. If the United Kingdom withdraws from the EU during the grant period without concluding an agreement with the EU ensuring in particular that British applicants continue to be eligible, you will cease to receive EU funding (while continuing, where possible, to participate) or be required to leave the project on the basis of Article 34.3 of the grant agreement.

Non-eligible entities: applicants who already receive Union financing for the same information provision and promotion measures that are part of their proposal(s) shall not be eligible for Union financing for those measures under Regulation (EU) No 1144/2014.

In order to assess the applicants' eligibility, the following supporting documents are requested:

—	private entity: extract from the official journal, copy of articles of association, or extract of trade or association register;

—	public entity: copy of the resolution or decision establishing the public company, or other official document establishing the public-law entity;

—	entities without legal personality: documents providing evidence that their representative(s) have the capacity to undertake legal obligations on their behalf.

In addition, all applicants are requested to submit the relevant documentation proving that the applicant meets the representativeness criteria set out in Article 1 of the Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/1829.

6.2. Eligible actions and activities

The proposals shall comply with the criteria of eligibility listed in Annex II of the Annual Work programme, namely:

(a)	proposals can only cover products and schemes listed in Article 5 of Regulation (EU) No 1144/2014;

(b)

proposals shall ensure that measures are implemented through implementing bodies as referred to in Article 13 of Regulation (EU) No 1144/2014. Proposing organisations must select bodies responsible for implementing programmes ensuring best value for money and absence of conflict of interest (see Article 2 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/1829). The proposing organisation shall undertake that the body responsible for the implementation of the programme shall be selected at the latest before the signature of the grant agreement (see Article 10 of the Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/1831);

(c)	if a proposing organisation proposes to implement certain parts of the proposal itself, it shall ensure that the cost of the measure which it plans to carry out itself is not in excess of the normal market rates;

(d)	proposals shall comply with Union law governing the products concerned and their marketing, be of significant scale, have a Union dimension and comply with all other provisions of Article 3(1) of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/1829;

(e)	if a message conveyed concerns information on the impact on health, proposals shall comply with the rules as referred to in Article 3(2) of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/1829;

(f)	if the proposal proposes to mention origin or brands, it shall comply with the rules as referred to in Chapter II of the Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/1831.

For applicants submitting proposals targeting the UK: please note that the withdrawal of the UK from the EU may lead to changes in the implementation of the programmes.

For the purposes of assessing the eligibility of the planned activities, the following information must be provided:

—	proposals covering national quality schemes shall provide documentation or a reference to publicly available sources that prove that the quality scheme is recognised by the Member State;

—

proposals targeting the internal market and relaying a message on proper dietary practices or responsible alcohol consumption shall describe how the proposed programme and its message(s) are in line with the relevant national rules in the field of public health in the Member State where the programme will be carried out. Justification shall include references or documentation in support of the claim.

In addition, a proposal shall also comply with one of the thematic priorities listed in the 2018 Annual work programme for simple programmes. Below are extracts of the 2018 Annual Work programme detailing the 6 topics for which applications may be submitted. The text describes the topic, related amount foreseen, objectives and expected results.

Actions under thematic priority 1: Simple programmes in the internal market

Topics

Total amount foreseen

Priorities of the year, objectives pursued and expected results

Topic 1 - Information provision and promotion programmes aiming at increasing the awareness and recognition of Union quality schemes as defined in Article 5(4)(a), (b) and (c) of Regulation (EU) No 1144/2014

11 000 000 EUR

The objective is to increase the awareness and recognition of the Union quality schemes:

a)	quality schemes: Protected designation of origin (PDO), protected geographical indication (PGI), traditional speciality guaranteed (TSG) and optional quality terms;

b)	organic production method;

c)	the logo for quality agriculture products specific to the outermost regions of the Union.

Information and promotion programmes targeting Union quality schemes should be a key priority in the internal market since such schemes provide consumers with assurances on the quality and characteristics of the product or the production process used, achieve added value for the products concerned and enhance their market opportunities.

One of the expected results is to increase the levels of recognition of the logo associated with the Union quality schemes by the European consumers knowing that, according to special Eurobarometer (No 440), only 20 % of Europeans consumers recognise the logos of products that benefit from a protected designation of origin (PDO), 17 % for a protected geographical indication (PGI) and 15 % for the Traditional Specialty Guaranteed, these being the main Union quality schemes. In addition, only 23 % of European consumers recognise the EU logo of organic farming. The expected ultimate impact is to enhance the competitiveness and consumption of Union agri-food products registered under a Union quality scheme, raise their profile and increase their market share.

Topic 2 - Information provision and promotion programmes aiming at highlighting the specific features of agricultural methods in the Union and the characteristics of European agricultural and food products, and quality schemes defined in Article 5(4)(d) of Regulation (EU) No 1144/2014

7 000 000 EUR

The objective is to highlight at least one of the specific features of agricultural production methods in the Union, particularly in terms of food safety, traceability, authenticity, labelling, nutritional and health aspects (including proper dietary practices and responsible consumption of eligible alcoholic beverages), animal welfare, respect for the environment and sustainability, and the characteristics of agricultural and food products, particularly in terms of their quality, taste, diversity or traditions.

The expected ultimate impact is to increase the awareness of the merits of Union agricultural products by the European consumers and to enhance the competitiveness and consumption of Union agri-food products, raise their profile and increase their market share.

Topic 3 - Information provision and promotion programmes aiming at highlighting the sustainable aspect of the sheep/goat meat production (*1)

2 000 000 EUR

The sheep/goat meat sector is a very fragile sector: sheep/goat meat consumption is declining, and is under strong competition from cheaper imports.

The objective is to highlight the sustainable aspect of sheep/goat sector which counts as the most extensive livestock production system and plays an important role in nature protection and keeping biodiversity. Small ruminants' herds graze around 80 % of areas facing natural handicap in the EU and have an active role in keeping rural population and maintaining grassland and pastures. Actions shall highlight the environmental sustainability of the production, stressing its beneficial role for climate action and the environment.

Actions may for example address how the product(s) promoted and its/their production method(s) contribute to: climate change mitigation (e.g. reduction in greenhouse gas emissions) and/or adaptation; biodiversity, conservation and sustainable use (e.g. landscape, genetic resources); sustainable water management (e.g. water use efficiency, reduction of nutrients or pesticides load); sustainable soil management (e.g. erosion control; nutrient balance; prevention of acidification, salinization). They may also highlight the active role of the extensive sheep/meat breeding in keeping rural population and in maintaining grassland and/or transhumance grazing pastures.

The expected ultimate impact is to increase the awareness of the merits of Union agricultural products by the European consumers and to enhance the competitiveness and consumption of the concerned Union agri-food products, raise their profile and increase their market share.

Actions under thematic priority 2: Simple programmes in third countries

Applicants can refer to section 1.2.1.2 of Annex I of the Work Programme for additional background information.

Topics	Total amount foreseen	Priorities of the year, objectives pursued and expected results
Topic 4 - Information provision and promotion programmes targeting one or more of the following countries: China (including Hong-Kong and Macao), Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, South East Asian region or Southern Asia (*2)	26 250 000 EUR	The information and promotion programmes shall target one or more countries identified in the corresponding topic. The objectives of these programmes shall comply with the general and specific objectives set out in Article 2 and 3 of Regulation (EU) No 1144/2014. The expected ultimate impact is to enhance the competitiveness and consumption of Union agri-food products, raise their profile and increase their market share in these targeted countries.
Topic 5 - Information provision and promotion programmes targeting one or more of the following countries: Canada, USA, Mexico or Colombia	22 500 000 EUR
Topic 6 - Information provision and promotion programmes targeting other geographical areas	26 250 000 EUR

In case a proposing organisation wishes to target several of the prioritised regions in third countries, it shall either submit several applications (one application per topic). or apply under the topic ‘information and promotion programmes targeting other geographical areas’. This topic relates to the geographical areas that have not been listed in topic 4 to topic 5, but it may also concern a combination of several prioritised regions listed in topic 4 and topic 5.

Types of eligible activities

Promotion and information provision actions may notably consist of the following activities, eligible under this call:

1.	Management of project

Public relations

—	PR activities

—	Press events

Website, social media

—	Website setup, updating, maintenance

—	Social media (accounts setup, regular posting)

—	Other (mobile apps, e-learning platforms, webinars, etc.)

Advertising

—

Radio

—

Online

—

Outdoor

—

Cinema

Communication tools

—	Publications, media kits, promotional merchandise

—	Promotional videos

Events

—	Stands at trade fairs

—	Seminars, workshops, B2B meetings, trainings for trade/cooks, activities in schools

—	Restaurant weeks

—	Sponsorship of events

—	Study trips to Europe

Point-of-sale (POS) promotion

—	Tasting days

—	Other: promotion in retailers' publications, POS advertising

Tastings and distribution of samples are not allowed in the context of campaigns on responsible drinking implemented in the internal market; these activities are however acceptable if ancillary to and supportive of the provision of information measures on the quality schemes and organic production method.

Implementation period

The co- financed action (information provision/promotion programmes) shall be implemented over a period of at least one year but not more than three years.

Proposals should specify the duration of the action.

7. Exclusion criteria (10)

7.1. Exclusion from participation

Applicants will be excluded from participating in the call for proposals procedure if they are in any of the exclusion situations:

(a)

the economic operator is bankrupt, subject to insolvency or winding-up procedures, where its assets are being administered by a liquidator or by a court, where it is in an arrangement with creditors, where its business activities are suspended, or where 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 economic operator 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;

(c)

it has been established by a final judgment or a final administrative decision that the economic operator is guilty of grave professional misconduct by having violated applicable laws or regulations or ethical standards of the profession to which the economic operator 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 a contract;

(ii)	entering into agreement with other economic operators 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;

(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 economic operator 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 1995 (11);

(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 1997 (12), and in Article 2(1) of Council Framework Decision 2003/568/JHA (13), as well as corruption as defined in the law of the country where the contracting authority is located, the country in which the economic operator is established or the country of the performance of the contract;

(iii)

participation in a criminal organisation, as defined in Article 2 of Council Framework Decision 2008/841/JHA (14);

(iv)	money laundering or terrorist financing, as defined in Article 1 of Directive 2005/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (15);

(v)	terrorist-related offences or offences linked to terrorist activities, as defined in Articles 1 and 3 of Council Framework Decision 2002/475/JHA (16) respectively, or inciting, aiding, abetting or attempting to commit such offences, as referred to in Article 4 of that 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 Council (17);

(e)

the economic operator has shown significant deficiencies in complying with main obligations in the performance of a 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 economic operator has committed an irregularity within the meaning of Article 1(2) of Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2988/95 (18).

7.2. Exclusion from award:

Applicants will be excluded from the award of co- financing if, in the course of the grant award procedure, they fall under one of the situations described under article 107 of the Financial Regulation:

a)	are in an exclusion situation established in accordance with article 106 of the Financial Regulation;

b)	have misrepresented the information required as a condition for participating in the procedure or have failed to supply that information in the grant award procedure or fail to supply this information;

In order to demonstrate compliance with the exclusion criteria, the coordinator has to check the relevant box while submitting its online application. If selected for co-funding, all beneficiaries (in case of a multi-beneficiary grant) have to sign a declaration on honour certifying that they are not in one of the situations referred to in articles 106(1), 106(2), 107 and 108 of the Financial Regulation. The applicants should follow the instructions in the participant portal.

8. Selection criteria

8.1. Financial capacity

Applicants must have stable and sufficient sources of funding to maintain their activity throughout the period of implementation of the action and to participate in its funding.

The financial capacity of all applicants will be assessed in line with the requirements of the Financial Regulation. This assessment will not be carried out if:

—	the EU-contribution requested by the applicant is ≤ EUR 60 000;

—	the applicant is a public body

The supporting documents that need to be annexed to the online application to allow the assessment of the financial capacity include:

—	the annual accounts (including the balance sheet and the profit and loss statement) for the last financial year for which the accounts were closed (for newly created entities, the business plan shall be submitted to replace the accounts);

—	A pre-filled Financial Viability Form summarising the necessary data from the annual accounts contributing to the assessment of the applicant's financial capacity.

In addition for a coordinator or other beneficiary requesting an EU-contribution of ≥ EUR 750 000 (threshold applicable per beneficiary):

—	an audit report produced by an approved external auditor certifying the accounts for the last financial year available. This provision shall not apply to public bodies.

8.2. Operational capacity

Applicants must have the professional competencies and qualifications required to complete the programme.

Applicants shall demonstrate that at least one natural person working under employment contract with the applicant, or assigned to the action on basis of an equivalent appointing act, secondment against payment or on the basis of other types of direct contracts (e.g. covering provision of services) will be appointed as a project leader. The project leader shall have at least three years' experience in project management. As evidence, the following information must be provided in the annex ‘Additional information’:

—	Curriculum Vitae (qualifications and professional experiences) of the applicant's staff primarily responsible for managing and implementing the proposed action, using the Europass template (19)

—	A declaration by the proposed project leader that he/she will be available for the total duration of the proposed action.

In cases where proposing organisations propose to implement certain parts of the proposal, evidence shall be given that they have at least three years' experience in implementing information provision and promotion measures. As evidence, the following information must be provided in the Annex ‘Additional information’:

—	The proposing organisation(s) activity report or a description of activities performed in connection to the activities that are eligible for co- financing as described under point 6 (above).

9. Award criteria

Part B of the application serves to evaluate the proposal against the award criteria.

Applications must propose an efficient management structure and provide a clear and precise description of the strategy and of the expected results.

The content of each proposal will be assessed according to the following criteria and sub criteria:

Criteria

Maximum points

Threshold

1.	Union dimension

2.	Quality of the technical proposal

3.	Quality of the project management

4.	Budget and cost-effectiveness

TOTAL

100

Proposals falling below the overall and/or the individual thresholds announced above shall be rejected.

The following sub-criteria shall be taken into account in the assessment of each of the main award criteria:

Union dimension:

a)	Relevance of proposed information and promotion measures to the general and specific objectives listed in Article 2 of Regulation (EU) No 1144/2014, aims listed in Article 3 of that Regulation as well as to priorities, objectives and expected results announced under the relevant thematic priority

b)	Union message of the campaign

c)	Impact of project at Union level

Quality of the technical proposal

a)	Quality and relevance of the market analysis

b)	Coherence of the programme strategy, objectives, and key messages;

c)	Suitable choice of activities with respect to objectives and programme strategy, adequate communication mix, synergy between the activities;

d)	Concise description of activities and deliverables;

e)	Quality of the proposed evaluation methods and indicators.

Quality of the project management

a)	Project organisation and management structure;

b)	Quality control mechanisms and risk management.

Budget and cost-effectiveness

a)	Justification of the overall level of investment

b)	Suitable allocation of budget in relation to the objectives and scope of the activities;

c)	Clear description of the estimated costs and accuracy of the budget

d)	Consistency between the estimated costs and deliverables;

e)	Realistic estimation of costs of project coordination and of activities implemented by the proposing organisation, including number and rate of person/days

Following the evaluation, all eligible proposals are ranked according to the total number of points awarded.

Financial contributions shall be awarded to the highest scoring proposals up to the available budget.

A separate ranked list shall be established for each of the priority topics listed under section 6.2 of the present call.

If there are two (or more) proposals with the same number of points on the same ranked list, then the proposal(s) which allows for diversification in terms of products or targeted markets shall be prioritised. It means than between two ex aequo proposals, the Commission shall first select the one the content of which (firstly in terms of products, secondly in terms of targeted market) is not yet represented in the ranked list. If this criterion cannot be applied, then the Commission shall select first the programme which got the highest score for the individual award criteria. It will first compare the scores for ‘Union dimension’, then for ‘Quality of the technical proposal’, and finally for ‘Budget and cost-effectiveness’.

If for a given topic there are not enough proposals on the ranked list to exhaust the whole foreseen amount, the remaining amount may be reallocated to other topics according to the following criteria:

(a)	the total of the remaining foreseen amount for the three topics on the internal market shall be allocated to the projects targeting the internal market with the highest quality score, irrespective of the topic for which they have applied;

(b)	the same approach shall be taken for proposals targeting third countries (Topics 4-6);

(c)	if the foreseen amount is still not exhausted, the remaining amounts for both internal market and third countries shall be merged and assigned to projects with the highest quality score, irrespective of the priority and topic for which they have applied.

The order of the ranked lists will be strictly followed.

10. Legal commitments

Following the evaluation, Chafea establishes a list of proposals recommended for funding, ranked according to the total number of points awarded.

According to Article 11(2) Regulation (EU) No 1144/2014, the European Commission shall adopt an implementing act, determining the simple programmes selected, any changes to be made to them, and the corresponding budgets (award decision).

This Commission decision will list the selected programmes accepted for a financial contribution from the Union under Article 15 of Regulation (EU) No 1144/2014. This Decision will be addressed to the competent Member States. The Member States concerned shall be responsible for the proper implementation of the simple programmes selected and for the relevant payments.

As soon as the Commission adopts this implementing act, it shall forward the copies of the selected programmes to the Member States concerned. Member States shall without delay inform the proposing organisations concerned whether or not their applications have been accepted.

Member States shall conclude grant agreements for the implementation of programmes with the selected proposing organisations in accordance with the requirements mentioned under Article 10 of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/1831. The grant agreements will notably detail the conditions and level of funding, as well as the obligations of the parties.

11. Financial provisions

11.1. General principles applying to grants

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.

Applicants shall indicate the sources and amounts of Union funding received or applied for the same action or part of the action or their functioning (operating grants), as well as any other funding received or applied for the same action.

b)	Non-retroactivity No grant may be awarded retrospectively for actions already completed.

The co-financing principle

Co-financing means that the resources which are necessary to carry out the action are not entirely provided by the EU grant.

The remaining expenditure shall be borne exclusively by the proposing organisation.

Financial contributions given to a beneficiary by its members, specifically to be used for costs that are eligible under the action, are allowed and will be considered as receipts.

11.2. Balanced budget

The estimated budget of the action must be presented in part A of the application form. It must have revenue and expenditure in balance.

The budget must be drawn up in euros.

Applicants who foresee that costs will not be incurred in euros, are invited to use the exchange rate published in the Official Journal of the European Union:

http://ec.europa.eu/budget/contracts_grants/info_contracts/inforeuro/inforeuro_en.cfm

11.3. Implementation contracts/subcontracting

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 (20).

The beneficiary is expected to clearly document the tendering procedure and retain the documentation for the event of an audit.

Where the proposing organisation is a body governed by public law within the meaning of Article 2(1)(4) of Directive 2014/24/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (21), it must select the subcontractors in accordance with the national legislation transposing that Directive.

Sub-contracting, i.e. the externalisation of specific tasks or activities which form part of the action as described in the proposal must satisfy the conditions applicable to any implementation contract (as specified above) and in addition to them the following conditions:

—	it must be justified having regard to the nature of the action and what is necessary for its implementation;

—	the core tasks of the actions (i.e. the technical and financial coordination of the action and the management of the strategy) can neither be sub-contracted nor delegated

—	the estimated costs of subcontracting must be clearly stated in the technical and financial parts of the proposal;

—

any recourse to subcontracting, if not provided for in description of the action, is communicated by the beneficiary and approved by the Member State. The Member State may grant approval:

(i)	before any recourse to subcontracting, if the beneficiaries requests an amendment

(ii)

after recourse to subcontracting if the subcontracting:

—	is specifically justified in the interim or final technical report and

—	does not entail changes to the grant agreement which would call into question the decision awarding the grant or be contrary to the equal treatment of applicants;

—	the beneficiaries ensure that certain conditions applicable to beneficiaries, enumerated in the grant agreement (e.g. visibility, confidentiality, etc.), are also applicable to the subcontractors.

Subcontracting to entities having a structural link with the beneficiary

Subcontracts may also be awarded to entities that have a structural link with the beneficiary, but only if the price is limited to the actual costs incurred by the entity (i.e. without any profit margin).

The tasks to be implemented by such entities must be clearly stated in the technical part of the proposal.

11.4. Funding forms, eligible and ineligible costs

Co-financing shall take the form of reimbursement of a specified proportion of eligible costs actually incurred; it will also comprise a flat rate covering indirect costs (equal to 4 % of eligible personnel costs) that are linked with the implementation of the action (22).

Maximum amount requested

The EU grant is limited to the following maximum co-funding rate of:

—	for simple programmes in the internal market: 70 % of the eligible costs

—	for simple programmes in third countries: 80 % of the eligible costs

—	for simple programmes in the internal market of beneficiary established in Member States receiving on or after 1 January 2014 financial assistance in accordance with Article 136 and 143 TFEU (23): 75 % of the programme's eligible costs

—	for simple programmes in third countries of beneficiary established in Member States receiving on or after 1 January 2014 financial assistance in accordance with Article 136 and 143 TFEU: 85 % of the programme's eligible costs

These two latest percentages shall apply to those programmes decided upon by the Commission before the date from which the Member State concerned no longer receives such financial assistance.

Consequently, part of the total eligible expenses entered in the estimative budget must be financed from sources other than the EU grant (co-financing principle).

Eligible costs

Eligible costs are actually incurred by the beneficiary of the grant and meet all the criteria indicated in Article 6.1 and 6.2 of the model grant agreement and in Article 4 of the Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/1829.

Ineligible costs

Ineligible costs are costs that do not comply with the conditions set out in Article 4 of the Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/1829. They are listed under Article 6.4 of the model grant agreement.

Calculation of the final grant amount

The final grant amount is calculated after completion of the programme, upon approval of the payment request.

The ‘final grant amount’ depends on the actual extent to which the programme is implemented in accordance with the Agreement's terms and conditions.

This amount is calculated by the Member State — when the payment of the balance is made — in accordance with Article 15 of the Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/1831.

11.5. Payment arrangements

The proposing organisation may submit an application for an advance payment to the Member State concerned in accordance with Article 13 of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/1831.

Applications for an interim payment of the Union's financial contributions shall be submitted by the proposing organisation to the Member States in accordance with Article 14 of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/1831.

Applications for payment of the balance shall be submitted by the proposing organisation to the Member State States in accordance with Article 15 of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/1831.

11.6. Advance guarantee

In accordance with Article 13 of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/1831, the advance payment shall be paid on condition that the proposing organisation has lodged a security equal to the amount of that advance in favour of the Member State in accordance with Chapter IV of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 907/2014 (24).

12. Publicity

Beneficiaries must clearly acknowledge the European Union's contribution in all activities for which the grant is used.

In this respect, beneficiaries are required to give prominence to the name and emblem of the European Union on all their publications, posters, programmes and other products realised under the co-financed project.

Rules for the graphic reproduction of the European emblem are found in the Interinstitutional Style Guide (25).

In addition, all visual material produced in the framework of a promotion programme co-financed by the European Union must bear the signature ‘Enjoy it's from Europe’. Guidelines on the use of the signature, as well as all graphic files can be downloaded from the promotion website on Europa (26).

Lastly, all written material, i.e. brochures, posters, leaflets, banners, billboards, print advertisements, articles in newspaper, webpages (with the exception of small gadgets) should include a disclaimer according to the terms detailed in the grant agreement, explaining that it represents the views of the author. The European Commission does not accept any responsibility for use that may be made of the information it contains.

13. Data protection

The reply to any call for proposals involves the recording and processing of personal data (such as name, address and CVs of individuals participating in the co- financed action). Such data will be processed pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council (27). Unless indicated otherwise, the questions and any personal data requested are required to evaluate the application in accordance with the specifications of the call for proposal will be processed solely for that purpose by the Executive Agency/the Commission or third parties acting on behalf and under the responsibility of the Executive Agency/Commission. Data subjects may be informed regarding further details of the processing operations, their rights and how they may be enforced by referring to the privacy statement published in the participant portal:

http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/support/legal_notices.html

and the Agency's website:

http://ec.europa.eu/chafea/about/data_protection.html

Applicants are invited to check the relevant privacy statement at regular intervals so as to be duly informed on possible updates that may occur by the deadline for submission of their proposals or afterwards. Beneficiaries assume the legal obligation to inform their staff on the relevant processing operations that are to be performed by the Agency; in order to do so, they have to provide them with the privacy statements published by the Agency in the participant's portal before transmitting their data to the Agency; Personal data may be registered in the Early Detection and Exclusion System (EDES) of the European Commission provided for in articles 105a and 108 of the EU Financial Regulation according to the applicable provisions.

14. Procedure for the submission of proposals

Proposals must be submitted by the deadline set out under section 3 via the Electronic Submission System: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/opportunities/agrip/index.html

Before submitting a proposal:

1.	Find a call: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/opportunities/agrip/index.html

2.	Create an account to submit a proposal: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/organisations/register.html

3.	Register all partners via the beneficiary registry: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/organisations/register.html

Applicants will be informed in writing about the results of the selection process.

Applicants shall respect the page limit and formatting requirements for the technical proposal (part B) indicated in the submission system.

In submitting a proposal, the applicant accepts the procedures and conditions as described in this call and in the documents to which it refers.

No modification to the application is allowed once the deadline for submission has elapsed. However, if there is a need to clarify certain aspects or for the correction of clerical mistakes, the Commission/Agency may contact the applicant for this purpose during the evaluation process (28).

Contacts

For questions on the online submission tools please contact the IT helpdesk set-up for this purpose via the participant portal website:

http://ec.europa.eu/research/index.cfm?pg=enquiries

For non-IT related questions a helpdesk at the Chafea is available via: CHAFEA-AGRI-CALLS@ec.europa.eu. The deadline to submit questions is 29.3.2018 17:00 CET (Central European Time). Answers to relevant questions will be published on http://ec.europa.eu/chafea/agri/faq.html by 5.4.2018 17:00 CET (Central European Time).

Frequently asked questions are published on the website of the Chafea: http://ec.europa.eu/chafea/agri/faq.html.

In all correspondence relating to this call (e.g. when requesting information, or submitting an application), reference must be clearly made to this specific call. Once the electronic exchange system allocated a proposal ID, the applicant must use this number in all subsequent correspondence.

After the deadline for submission modifications to the application are impossible.

Related documents:

—	Guide for applicants with the relevant annexes

—	Application form

—	Model grant agreement (mono- and multi- beneficiary version)

(1) Regulation (EU) No 1144/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 October 2014 on information provision and promotion measures concerning agricultural products implemented in the internal market and in third countries and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 3/2008 (OJ L 317, 4.11.2014, p. 56).

(2) Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/1829 of 23 April 2015 supplementing Regulation (EU) No 1144/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council on information provision and promotion measures concerning agricultural products implemented in the internal market and in third countries (OJ L 266, 13.10.2015, p. 3).

(3) Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/1831 of 7 October 2015 laying down rules for application of Regulation (EU) No 1144/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council on information provision and promotion measures concerning agricultural products implemented in the internal market and in the third countries (OJ L 266, 13.10.2015, p. 14).

(4) Commission Implementing Decision of 15 November 2017 on the adoption of the work programme for 2018 of information provision and promotion measures concerning agricultural products implemented in the internal market and in third countries, C(2017) 7475/2.

(5) This information is available at https://ec.europa.eu/chafea/agri/funding-opportunities/simple-and-multi-programmes

(6) 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, 26.10.2012, p. 1).

(7) Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 establishing a common organisation of the markets in agricultural products and repealing Council Regulations (EEC) No 922/72, (EEC) No 234/79, (EC) No 1037/2001 and (EC) No 1234/2007 (OJ L 347, 20.12.2013, p. 671).

(8) Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 November 2012 on quality schemes for agricultural products and foodstuffs (OJ L 343, 14.12.2012, p. 1).

(9) Regulation (EU) No 1379/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2013 on the common organisation of the markets in fishery and aquaculture products, amending Council Regulations (EC) No 1184/2006 and (EC) No 1224/2009 and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 104/2000 (OJ L 354, 28.12.2013, p. 1).

(*1) Sheep/Goat meat is also eligible under Topic 1 and Topic 2. For sheep/goat meat programmes proposed under Topic 2, to avoid overlaps, the message shall be different than the sustainable aspect of the sheep/goat meat production (except if sheep/goat meat is associated with (an)other product(s).

(*2) The composition of regions follows the United Nations country and regional classification. For more details on the list of countries composing the geographical areas, see: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/m49/m49regin.htm

(10) Articles 106(1), 106(2), 107 and 108 of the Financing Regulation and its corresponding Rules of Application adopted by Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 and Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 1268/2012 (OJ L 362, 31.12.2012, p. 1) as lastly amended by Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2015/1929 of the European Parliament and of the Council (OJ L 286, 30.10.2015, p. 1) and Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2462 (OJ L 342, 29.12.2015, p. 7), respectively.

(11) OJ C 316, 27.11.1995, p. 48.

(12) OJ C 195, 25.6.1997, p. 1.

(13) 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).

(14) Council Framework Decision 2008/841/JHA of 24 October 2008 on the fight against organised crime (OJ L 300, 11.11.2008, p. 42).

(15) 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).

(16) Council Framework Decision 2002/475/JHA of 13 June 2002 on combating terrorism (OJ L 164, 22.6.2002, p. 3).

(17) 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).

(18) 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).

(19) Template available at the following address: http://europass.cedefop.europa.eu/

(20) For guidance on the competitive procedure, please refer to the following webpage:

https://ec.europa.eu/chafea/agri/sites/chafea/files/agri-2016-61788-00-00_en.pdf

(21) 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).

(22) Applicant's attention is drawn to the fact that in case they receive an operating grant, indirect costs are not eligible.

(23) At the date of the publication of this call: Greece.

(24) Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 907/2014 of 11 March 2014 supplementing Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to paying agencies and other bodies, financial management, clearance of accounts, securities and use of euro (OJ L 255, 28.8.2014, p. 18).

(25) http://publications.europa.eu/code/en/en-5000100.htm

(26) http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/promotion/index_en.htm

(27) Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2000 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by the Community institutions and bodies and on the free movement of such data (OJ L 8, 12.1.2001, p. 1).

(28) Article 96 of Financial Regulation.

12.1.2018

Official Journal of the European Union

C 9/32

2018 CALL FOR PROPOSALS

MULTI PROGRAMMES

(2018/C 9/10)

1. Background and purpose of this call

1.1. Information provision and promotion measures concerning agricultural products

On 22 October 2014, the European Parliament and the Council adopted Regulation (EU) No 1144/2014 on information provision and promotion measures concerning agricultural products implemented in the internal market and in third countries and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 3/2008 (1). This Regulation is supplemented by Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/1829 (2) and the rules for its application are laid down in Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/1831 (3).

The general objective of the information provision and promotion measures is to enhance the competitiveness of the Union agricultural sector.

The specific objectives of the information provision and promotion measures are to:

(a)	increase awareness of the merits of Union agricultural products and of the high standards applicable to the production methods in the Union;

(b)	increase the competitiveness and consumption of Union agricultural products and certain food products and to raise their profile both inside and outside the Union;

(c)	increase the awareness and recognition of Union quality schemes;

(d)	increase the market share of Union agricultural products and certain food products, specifically focusing on those markets in third countries that have the highest growth potential;

(e)	restore normal market conditions in the event of serious market disturbance, loss of consumer confidence or other specific problems.

1.2. The Commission's Annual Work Programme for 2018

http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/promotion/annual-work-programmes/2018/index_en.htm

1.3. Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency

The Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency (hereinafter ‘Chafea’) is entrusted by the European Commission with the management of certain parts of the information provision and promotion measures concerning agricultural products implemented in the internal market and in third countries, including the launch of calls for proposals, reception and evaluation of proposals, the preparation and signature of grant agreements for multi programmes and the monitoring of their implementation.

1.4. The present call for proposals

The present call for proposals relates to the implementation of multi programmes, in the framework of Sections 1.2.1.3 (actions under thematic priority 3: multi programmes in the internal market) and 1.2.1.4 (actions under thematic priority 4: multi programmes in third countries) of Annex I of the 2018 Annual Work Programme related to actions under thematic priority 3: multi programmes in the internal market and priority 4: multi programmes in third countries.

2. Objective(s) – Theme(s) – Priorities

Sections 1.2.1.3 and 1.2.1.4 of Annex I of the 2018 Annual Work Programme set out the thematic priorities for actions co-financed through the present call (see also Section 6.2 on ‘Eligible activities’ below). Applications submitted in response to this call must fall under the scope of one of the four topics given in these sections of the Annual Work Programme, otherwise they will not be considered for funding. Applicants may submit several applications for different projects under the same priority topic. Applicants may also submit several applications for different projects under different thematic priorities or topics.

3. Timetable

The deadline for submission is 12 April 2018, 17.00 CET (Central European Time).

	Stages/Deadlines	Date and time or indicative period
(a)	Publication of the call for proposals	12.1.2018
(b)	Deadline to submit non-IT-related questions	29.3.2018 17.00 CET
(c)	Deadline to reply to non-IT-related questions	5.4.2018 17.00 CET
(d)	Deadline for submitting applications	12.4.2018 17.00 CET
(e)	Evaluation period	April-August 2018
(f)	Information to applicants	October 2018
(g)	Grant adaptation phase	October 2018-January 2019
(h)	Signature of the grant agreement	< January 2019
(i)	Starting date of the action	> 1.1.2019

4. Budget available

The total budget earmarked for the co-financing of actions under this call is estimated at EUR 74 100 000. The indicative amounts available per topic are indicated in the table ‘Eligible activities’ under point 6.2 below.

This amount is subject to the availability of the appropriations provided for in the general budget of the EU for 2018 following its adoption by the budgetary authority or provided for in the provisional twelfths.

Chafea reserves the right not to distribute all the funds available.

5. Admissibility requirements

Applications must be sent no later than the submission deadline referred to in Section 3.

Failure to comply with the above requirements will lead to the rejection of the application.

Even though proposals may be submitted in any of the official languages of the European Union, applicants are strongly encouraged to submit their proposal in English to facilitate processing of the application including its review by independent experts who provide technical input to the evaluation. In addition, applicants should be aware that Chafea will, in principle, use English to communicate with beneficiaries regarding the follow-up and the monitoring of the co-financed actions (grant management stage).

To facilitate the review of proposals by independent experts, who provide technical input to the evaluation, an English translation of the technical part of the proposal (part B) should preferably accompany the proposal if it is written in another EU official language.

6. Eligibility criteria

6.1. Eligible applicants

Proposals can only be submitted by legal persons or other entities which do not have a legal personality under the applicable national law provided that their representatives have the capacity to undertake legal obligations on behalf of the entity and offer guarantees for the protection of the Union's financial interests equivalent to those offered by legal persons as referred to in Article 131(2) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council (5) (hereinafter ‘Financial Regulation’).

More specifically, applications from the following organisations and bodies are eligible, as referred to in Article 7(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1144/2014:

(i)

trade or inter-trade organisations, established in a Member State and representative of the sector or sectors concerned in that Member State, and in particular the interbranch organisations as referred to in Article 157 of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council (6) and groups as defined in point 2 of Article 3 of Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council (7), provided that they are representative for the name protected under the latter Regulation which is covered by that programme;

(ii)	trade or inter-trade organisations of the Union representative of the sector or sectors concerned at Union level;

(iii)

producer organisations or associations of producer organisations, as referred to in Articles 152 and 156 of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 that have been recognised by a Member State; or

(iv)

The abovementioned proposing organisations may submit a proposal provided that they are representative of the sector or product concerned by the proposal, complying with conditions set out in Articles 1(1) or 1(2) of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/1829, namely:

(i)

trade or inter-trade organisation, established in a Member State or at Union level, as referred to in Article 7(1)(a) and (b) of Regulation (EU) No 1144/2014 respectively, shall be deemed to be representative of the sector concerned by the programme:

—	where it accounts for at least 50 % as a proportion of the number of producers, or 50 % of the volume or value of marketable production of the product(s) or sector concerned, in the Member State concerned or at Union level, or

—	where it is an interbranch organisation recognised by the Member State in accordance with Article 158 of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 or with Article 16 of Regulation (EU) No 1379/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council (8);

(ii)

(iii)

(iv)	an agri-food sector body as referred to in Article 7(1)(d) of Regulation (EU) No 1144/2014 shall be deemed to be representative of the sector(s) concerned by the programme by means of having representatives of that product(s) or sector among its memberships.

Proposals shall be submitted by:

(a)	at least two organisations referred to in points (a), (c) or (d) of Article 7(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1144/2014, which shall be from at least two Member States; or

(b)	one or more Union organisations referred to in point (b) of Article 7(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1144/2014.

Only applications from entities established in EU Member States are eligible.

In order to assess the applicants' eligibility, the following supporting documents are requested:

—	private entity: extract from the official journal, copy of articles of association, or extract of trade or association register,

—	public entity: copy of the resolution or decision establishing the public company, or other official document establishing the public-law entity,

—	entities without legal personality: documents providing evidence that their representative(s) have the capacity to undertake legal obligations on their behalf,

—	in addition, all applicants are requested to submit the relevant documentation proving that the applicant meets the representativeness criteria set out in Article 1 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/1829.

6.2. Eligible actions and activities

The proposals shall comply with the criteria of eligibility listed in Annex III of the Annual Work Programme, namely:

(a)	proposals can only cover products and schemes listed in Article 5 of Regulation (EU) No 1144/2014;

(b)	proposals shall comply with Union law governing the products concerned and their marketing and have a Union dimension;

(c)

proposals in the internal market covering one or more schemes as referred to in Article 5(4) of Regulation (EU) No 1144/2014, shall focus on the(se) scheme(s) in their main Union message. When in this programme, one or several products illustrate(s) the(se) scheme(s), it/they shall appear as a secondary message in relation to the main Union message;

(d)

if a message conveyed by a multi programme concerns information on the impact on health, proposals shall:

—	in the internal market, comply with the Annex to Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council (9), or be accepted by the national authority responsible for public health in the Member State where the operations are carried out,

—	in third countries, be accepted by the national authority responsible for public health in the country where the operations are carried out;

(e)	if the proposal proposes to mention origin or brands, it shall comply with the rules as referred to in Chapter II of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/1831.

For applicants submitting proposals targeting the UK: please note that the withdrawal of the UK from the EU may lead to changes in the implementation of the programmes.

For the purposes of assessing the eligibility of the planned activities, the following information must be provided:

—	proposals covering national quality schemes shall provide documentation or a reference to publicly available sources that prove that the quality scheme is recognised by the Member State,

—

In addition, a proposal shall also comply with one of the thematic priorities listed in the 2018 Annual Work Programme for multi programmes. Below are extracts of the 2018 Annual Work Programme detailing the four topics for which applications may be submitted. The text describes the topic, related amount foreseen, objectives and expected results.

Action under thematic priority 3: Multi programmes in the internal market

Topic

Total amount foreseen

Priorities of the year, objectives pursued and expected results

Topic A — Information provision and promotion programmes aiming at highlighting the sustainable aspect of the sheep/goat meat production (*1)

4 000 000 EUR

Actions will for example address how the product(s) promoted and its/their production method(s) contribute to: climate change mitigation (e.g. reduction in greenhouse gas emissions) and/or adaptation; biodiversity, conservation and sustainable use (e.g. landscape, genetic resources); sustainable water management (e.g. water use efficiency, reduction of nutrients or pesticides load); sustainable soil management (e.g. erosion control; nutrient balance; prevention of acidification, salinization). They may also highlight the active role of the extensive sheep/meat breeding in keeping rural population and in maintaining grassland and/or transhumance grazing pastures.

The expected ultimate impact is to increase the awareness of the merits of Union agricultural products by the European consumers and to enhance the competitiveness and consumption of the concerned Union agri-food products, raise their profile and increase their market share.

Topic B — Information provision and promotion programmes aiming at increasing the consumption of fruits and vegetables in the internal market in the context of balanced and proper dietary practices (*2)

8 000 000 EUR

The Commission is committed to promote proper dietary practices, in line with the European Commission's white paper on a strategy on nutrition, overweight, and obesity-related health issues (10). Actions shall highlight the benefits of consuming fruits and vegetables in a balanced diet. The messages could notably focus on: aiming at having at least five portions of a variety of fruit and vegetables each day; the place of fruit and vegetables in the food pyramid, beneficial impact on health, etc.

The objective is to increase the consumption of EU fruits and vegetables in informing consumers about balanced and proper dietary practices and

the expected ultimate impact is to enhance the competitiveness and consumption of the concerned Union agri-food products, raise their profile and increase their market share.

Topic C — Information provision and promotion programmes aiming at increasing the awareness and recognition of Union quality schemes mentioned in Article 5(4)(a), (b) and (c) of Regulation (EU) No 1144/2014

30 000 000 EUR

—

For information provision and promotion programmes aiming at increasing the awareness and recognition of Union quality schemes mentioned in Article 5(4)(a), (b) and (c) of Regulation (EU) No 1144/2014:

The objective is to increase the awareness and recognition of the Union quality schemes:

(a)	quality schemes: Protected designation of origin (PDO), protected geographical indication (PGI), traditional speciality guaranteed (TSG) and optional quality terms;

(b)	organic production method;

(c)	the logo for quality agriculture products specific to the outermost regions of the Union.

The expected ultimate impact is to enhance the competitiveness and consumption of Union agri-food products registered under a Union quality scheme, raise their profile and increase their market share.

Or:

Information provision and promotion programmes highlighting the specific features of agricultural methods in the Union and the characteristics of EU agri-food products and quality schemes mentioned in Article 5(4)(d) of Regulation (EU) No 1144/2014

—

For information provision and promotion programmes highlighting the specific features of agricultural methods in the Union and the characteristics of EU agri-food products and quality schemes mentioned in Article 5(4)(d) of Regulation (EU) No 1144/2014:

The expected impact is to increase the awareness of the merits of Union agricultural products by the consumers and to enhance the competitiveness and consumption of the concerned Union agri-food products, raise their profile and increase their market share.

Actions under thematic priority 4: Multi programmes in third countries

Topics

Total amount foreseen

Priorities of the year, objectives pursued and expected results

Topic D — Information provision and promotion programmes targeting any third countries

32 100 000 EUR

The information and promotion programmes shall target one or several third countries.

The objectives of these programmes shall comply with the general and specific objectives set out in Article 2 and 3 of Regulation (EU) No 1144/2014.

The expected ultimate impact is to enhance the competitiveness and consumption of Union agri-food products, raise their profile and increase their market share in these targeted countries.

Types of eligible activities

Promotion and information provision actions may notably consist of the following activities, eligible under this call:

1.	Management of project

Public relations

—	PR activities

—	Press events

Website, social media

—	Website setup, updating, maintenance

—	Social media (accounts setup, regular posting)

—	Other (mobile apps, e-learning platforms, webinars, etc.)

Advertising

—

Radio

—

Online

—

Outdoor

—

Cinema

Communication tools

—	Publications, media kits, promotional merchandise

—	Promotional videos

Events

—	Stands at trade fairs

—	Seminars, workshops, B2B meetings, trainings for trade/cooks, activities in schools

—	Restaurant weeks

—	Sponsorship of events

—	Study trips to Europe

Point-of-sale (POS) promotion

—	Tasting days

—	Other: promotion in retailers' publications, POS advertising

Implementation period

The co-financed action (information provision/promotion programmes) shall be implemented over a period of at least one but not more than three years.

Proposals should specify the duration of the action.

7. Exclusion criteria (11)

7.1. Exclusion from participation

Applicants will be excluded from participating in the call for proposals procedure if they are in any of the exclusion situations:

(a)

(b)

(c)

(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 a contract;

(ii)	entering into agreement with other economic operators 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;

(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 economic operator 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 1995 (12);

(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 1997 (13), and in Article 2(1) of Council Framework Decision 2003/568/JHA (14), as well as corruption as defined in the law of the country where the contracting authority is located, the country in which the economic operator is established or the country of the performance of the contract;

(iii)

participation in a criminal organisation, as defined in Article 2 of Council Framework Decision 2008/841/JHA (15);

(iv)	money laundering or terrorist financing, as defined in Article 1 of Directive 2005/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (16);

(v)	terrorist-related offences or offences linked to terrorist activities, as defined in Articles 1 and 3 of Council Framework Decision 2002/475/JHA (17) respectively, or inciting, aiding, abetting or attempting to commit such offences, as referred to in Article 4 of that 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 Council (18);

(e)

(f)	it has been established by a final judgment or final administrative decision that the economic operator has committed an irregularity within the meaning of Article 1(2) of Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2988/95 (19).

7.2. Exclusion from award

Applicants will be excluded from the award of co-financing if, in the course of the grant award procedure, they fall under one of the situations described under Article 107 of the Financial Regulation:

(a)	are in an exclusion situation established in accordance with Article 106 of the Financial Regulation;

(b)	have misrepresented the information required as a condition for participating in the procedure or have failed to supply that information in the grant award procedure or fail to supply this information;

In order to demonstrate compliance with the exclusion criteria, the coordinator has to check the relevant box while submitting its online application. If selected for co-funding, all beneficiaries (in case of multi-beneficiary grant) have to sign a declaration on honour certifying that they are not in one of the situations referred to in Articles 106(1), 106(2), 107 and 108 of the Financial Regulation. The applicants should follow the instructions in the participant portal.

8. Selection criteria

8.1. Financial capacity

Applicants must have stable and sufficient sources of funding to maintain their activity throughout the period of implementation of the action and to participate in its funding.

The financial capacity of all applicants will be assessed in line with the requirements of the Financial Regulation. This assessment will not be carried out if:

—	the applicant is a public body,

—	the EU contribution requested by the applicant is ≤ EUR 60 000.

The supporting documents that will be requested when assessing the financial capacity include:

—	the profit and loss account, the balance sheet for the last financial year for which the accounts were closed,

—	for newly created entities, the business plan may replace the above documents.

In addition, for a coordinator or other beneficiary requesting an EU-contribution of ≥ EUR 750 000 (threshold applicable per beneficiary):

—	an audit report produced by an approved external auditor certifying the accounts for the last financial year available. This provision shall not apply to public bodies.

The assessment of the financial capacity of applicants will be performed through the participant portal.

8.2. Operational capacity

Applicants must have the professional competencies and qualifications required to complete the programme.

—	curriculum vitae (qualifications and professional experiences) of the applicant's staff primarily responsible for managing and implementing the proposed action, using the Europass template (20),

—	a declaration by the proposed project leader that he/she will be available for the total duration of the proposed action.

—	the proposing organisation(s) activity report or a description of activities performed in connection to the activities that are eligible for co-financing as described under point 6 (above).

9. Award criteria

Part B of the application serves to evaluate the proposal against the award criteria.

Applications must propose an efficient management structure and provide a clear and precise description of the strategy and of the expected results.

The content of each proposal will be assessed according to the following criteria and sub criteria:

Criteria

Maximum points

Threshold

1.	Union dimension

2.	Quality of the technical proposal

3.	Quality of the project management

4.	Budget and cost-effectiveness

TOTAL

100

Proposals falling below the overall and/or the individual thresholds announced above shall be rejected.

The following sub-criteria shall be taken into account in the assessment of each of the main award criteria:

Union dimension

(a)	Relevance of proposed information and promotion measures to the general and specific objectives listed in Article 2 of Regulation (EU) No 1144/2014, aims listed in Article 3 of that Regulation, as well as to priorities, objectives and expected results announced under the relevant thematic priority;

(b)	Union message of the campaign;

(c)	Impact of project at Union level.

Quality of the technical proposal

(a)	Quality and relevance of the market analysis;

(b)	Coherence of the programme strategy, objectives and key messages;

(c)	Suitable choice of activities with respect to objectives and programme strategy, adequate communication mix, synergy between the activities;

(d)	Concise description of activities and deliverables

(e)	Quality of the proposed evaluation methods and indicators

Quality of the project management

(a)	Project organisation and management structure;

(b)	Quality control mechanisms and risk management.

Budget and cost-effectiveness

(a)	Justification of the overall level of investment;

(b)	Suitable allocation of budget in relation to the objectives and scope of the activities;

(c)	Clear description of the estimated costs and accuracy of the budget;

(d)	Consistency between the estimated costs and deliverables;

(e)	Realistic estimation of costs of project coordination and of activities implemented by the proposing organisation, including number and rate of person/days.

Following the evaluation, all eligible proposals are ranked according to the total number of points awarded. Financial contributions shall be awarded to the highest scoring proposals up to the available budget.

A separate ranked list shall be established for each of the priority topics listed under Section 6.2 of the present call.

If there are two or more proposals with the same number of points on the same ranked list, then the proposal(s) which allows for diversification in terms of products or targeted markets shall be prioritised. It means than between two ex aequo proposals, Commission shall first select the one the content of which (firstly in terms of products, secondly in terms of targeted market) is not yet represented in the ranked list. If this criterion cannot be applied to differentiate the proposals, then the Commission shall select first the programme which got the highest score for the individual award criteria. It will first compare the scores for ‘Union dimension’, then for ‘Quality of the technical proposal’, and finally for ‘Budget and cost-effectiveness’.

(a)	the total of the remaining foreseen amount for the three topics on the internal market shall be allocated to the projects targeting the internal market with the highest quality score, irrespective of the topic for which they have applied;

(b)	the same approach shall be taken for proposals targeting third countries (Topics 4-6);

(c)	if the foreseen amount is still not exhausted, the remaining amounts for both internal market and third countries shall be merged and assigned to projects with the highest quality score, irrespective of the priority and topic for which they have applied.

The order of the ranked lists will be strictly followed.

10. Legal commitments

The coordinators of proposals included in the list for funding will be invited to engage in adaptation phase preceding the signature of the grant agreement; the adaptation will be carried out via an online grant preparation system (SYGMA). If successful, it will result in the signature of a grant agreement, drawn up in euro and detailing the conditions and level of funding.

The grant agreement must be signed electronically first by the coordinator on behalf of the consortium and then by Chafea. All co-beneficiaries must accede to the grant agreement by signing electronically the accession form to the grant.

11. Financial provisions

The Financial Regulation and the Rules of Application (21) define the applicable rules for the implementation of the multi programmes.

11.1. General principles applying to grants

(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.

(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.

In such cases, costs eligible for financing may not have been incurred prior to the date of submission of the grant application.

(c)

The co-financing principle

Co-financing means that the resources which are necessary to carry out the action are not entirely provided by the EU grant.

The remaining expenditure shall be borne exclusively by the proposing organisation. Financial contributions given to a beneficiary by its members, specifically to be used for costs that are eligible under the action, are allowed and will be considered as receipts.

11.2. Balanced budget

The estimated budget of the action must be presented in part A of the application form. It must have revenue and expenditure in balance.

The budget must be drawn up in euros.

Applicants, who foresee that costs will not be incurred in euros, are invited to use the exchange rate published in the Official Journal of the European Union:

http://ec.europa.eu/budget/contracts_grants/info_contracts/inforeuro/inforeuro_en.cfm

11.3. Implementation contracts/subcontracting

The beneficiary is expected to clearly document the tendering procedure and retain the documentation for the event of an audit.

Where the proposing organisation is a body governed by public law within the meaning of Article 2(1)(4) of Directive 2014/24/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (23), it must select the subcontractors in accordance with the national legislation transposing that Directive.

Subcontracting, i.e. the externalisation of specific tasks or activities which form part of the action as described in the proposal must satisfy the conditions applicable to any implementation contract (as specified above) and in addition to them the following conditions:

—	it must be justified having regard to the nature of the action and what is necessary for its implementation,

—	the core tasks of the actions (i.e. the technical and financial coordination of the action and the management of the strategy) can neither be sub-contracted nor delegated,

—	the estimated costs of subcontracting must be clearly stated in the technical and financial parts of the proposal,

—

any recourse to subcontracting, if not provided for in description of the action, is communicated by the beneficiary and approved by Chafea. Chafea may grant approval:

(i)	before any recourse to subcontracting, if the beneficiaries requests an amendment;

(ii)

after recourse to subcontracting if the subcontracting:

—	is specifically justified in the interim or final technical report, and

—	does not entail changes to the grant agreement which would call into question the decision awarding the grant or be contrary to the equal treatment of applicants,

—	the beneficiaries ensure that certain conditions applicable to beneficiaries, enumerated in the grant agreement (e.g. visibility, confidentiality, etc.), are also applicable to the subcontractors.

Subcontracting to entities having a structural link with the beneficiary

The tasks to be implemented by such entities must be clearly stated in the technical part of the proposal.

11.4. Funding forms, eligible and ineligible costs

Maximum amount requested

The EU grant is limited to the following maximum co-funding rate of:

—	for multi programmes in the internal market and in third countries: 80 % of the programme's eligible costs,

—	in case of applicants established in Member States receiving on or after 1 January 2014 financial assistance in accordance with Articles 136 and 143 TFEU (25), the percentage shall be 85 %.

This shall only apply to those grants signed upon by Chafea before the date from which the Member State concerned no longer receives such financial assistance.

Consequently, part of the total eligible expenses entered in the estimative budget must be financed from sources other than the EU grant (co-financing principle).

Eligible costs

Eligible costs are actually incurred by the beneficiary of the grant and meet all the criteria indicated in Article 6 of the grant agreement.

—	Eligible (direct and indirect) costs are indicated in the grant agreement (see Article 6 par.1, 2 and 3).

—	Ineligible costs are indicated in the grant agreement (see Article 6.4).

Calculation of the final grant amount

The final grant amount is calculated after completion of the programme, upon approval of the payment request.

The ‘final grant amount’ depends on the actual extent to which the programme is implemented in accordance with the Agreement's terms and conditions.

This amount is calculated by Chafea, when the payment of the balance is made, in the following steps:

(1)	Application of the reimbursement rate to the eligible costs

(2)	Limit to the maximum grant amount

(3)	Reduction due to the no-profit rule

(4)	Reduction due to improper implementation or breach of other obligations.

EU grants may not have the purpose or effect of producing a profit within the framework of the action. ‘Profit’ shall be defined as the surplus of the amount obtained following steps 1 and 2 plus the action's total receipts, over the action's total eligible costs.

In this respect, where a profit is made, Chafea shall be entitled to recover the percentage of the profit corresponding to EU contribution to the eligible costs actually incurred by the beneficiary (ies) to carry out the action. A partner (coordinator or other beneficiary) requesting an EU contribution of ≤ EUR 60 000, is exempted from this provision.

11.5. Payment arrangements

A pre-financing payment corresponding to 20 % of the grant amount will be transferred to the coordinator according to the conditions set out in the grant agreement (Art 16.2).

Interim payment(s) shall be paid to the coordinator according to the conditions set out in the grant agreement (Art 16.3). Interim payment(s) are intended to reimburse the eligible costs incurred for the implementation of the programme during the corresponding reporting period(s).

The total amount of pre-financing and interim payment(s) shall not exceed 90 % of the maximum grant amount.

Chafea will establish the amount of the payment of the balance on the basis of the calculation of the final grant amount and according to the conditions set out in the grant agreement.

If the total amount of earlier payments is greater than the final grant amount, the payment of the balance takes the form of a recovery.

11.6. Pre-financing guarantee

In the event that the applicant's financial capacity is not satisfactory, a pre-financing guarantee for an amount up that of the pre-financing payment may be requested in order to limit the financial risks linked to the pre-financing payment.

If requested, the financial guarantee, in euro, shall be provided by a bank or approved financial institution established in one of the Member State of the European Union. Amounts blocked in bank accounts shall not be accepted as financial guarantees.

The guarantee may be replaced by a joint and several guarantee by a third party or by a joint guarantee of the beneficiaries of the action who are parties to the same grant agreement.

The guarantor shall stand as first-call guarantor and may not require Chafea to first have recourse against the principal debtor (i.e. the beneficiary concerned).

The pre-financing guarantee shall explicitly remain in force until the payment of the balance and, if payment of the balance takes the form of recovery, until three months after the debit note is notified to a beneficiary.

No guarantees will be required for a beneficiary receiving an EU contribution of ≤ EUR 60 000 (low-value grants).

12. Publicity

12.1. By the beneficiaries

Beneficiaries must clearly acknowledge the European Union's contribution in all activities for which the grant is used.

Rules for the graphic reproduction of the European emblem are found in the Inter-institutional Style Guide (26).

In addition, all visual material produced in the framework of a promotion programme co-financed by the European Union must bear the signature ‘Enjoy it's from Europe’:

Guidelines on the use of the signature, as well as all graphic files can be downloaded from the promotion website on Europa (27).

Lastly, all written material, i.e. brochures, posters, leaflets, banners, billboards, print advertisements, articles in newspapers, web pages (with the exception of small gadgets) should include a disclaimer according to the terms detailed in the grant agreement, explaining that it represents the views of the author. The European Commission/Agency does not accept any responsibility for use that may be made of the information it contains.

12.2. By Chafea

All information relating to grants awarded in the course of a financial year shall be published on the internet site of Chafea no later than the 30 June of the year following the financial year in which the grants were awarded.

Chafea will publish the following information:

—	name of the beneficiary (legal entity),

—	address of the beneficiary when the latter is a legal person, region when the beneficiary is a natural person, as defined on NUTS 2 level (28) if he/she is domiciled within the EU or equivalent if domiciled outside the EU,

—	subject of the grant,

—	amount awarded.

13. Data protection

The reply to any call for proposals involves the recording and processing of personal data (such as name, address and CVs of individuals participating in the co-financed action). Such data will be processed pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council (29). Unless indicated otherwise, the questions and any personal data requested are required to evaluate the application in accordance with the specifications of the call for proposal will be processed solely for that purpose by the Executive Agency/the Commission or third parties acting on behalf and under the responsibility of the Executive Agency/Commission. Data subjects may be informed regarding further details of the processing operations, their rights and how they may be enforced by referring to the privacy statement published in the participant portal:

http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/support/legal_notices.html

and the Agency's website:

http://ec.europa.eu/chafea/about/data_protection.html

Applicants are invited to check the relevant privacy statement at regular intervals so as to be duly informed on possible updates that may occur by the deadline for submission of their proposals or afterwards. Beneficiaries assume the legal obligation to inform their staff on the relevant processing operations that are to be performed by the Agency; in order to do so, they have to provide them with the privacy statements published by the Agency in the participant's portal before transmitting their data to the Agency; Personal data may be registered in the Early Detection and Exclusion System (EDES) of the European Commission provided for in Articles 105a and 108 of the EU Financial Regulation according to the applicable provisions.

14. Procedure for the submission of proposals

Proposals must be submitted by the deadline set out under Section 3 via the Electronic Submission System at:

http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/opportunities/agrip/index.html

Before submitting a proposal:

1.	Find a call: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/opportunities/agrip/index.html

2.	Create an account to submit a proposal: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/organisations/register.html

3.	Register all partners via the beneficiary registry: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/organisations/register.html

Applicants will be informed in writing about the results of the selection process.

Applicants shall respect the page limit and formatting requirements for the technical proposal (part B) indicated in the submission system.

In submitting a proposal, the applicant accepts the procedures and conditions as described in this call and in the documents to which it refers.

Contacts

For questions on the online submission tools please contact the IT helpdesk set up for this purpose via the participant portal website:

http://ec.europa.eu/research/index.cfm?pg=enquiries

For non-IT-related questions a helpdesk at Chafea is available via: CHAFEA-AGRI-CALLS@ec.europa.eu. The deadline to submit questions is 29.3.2018 17.00 CET (Central European Time). Answers to relevant questions will be published on http://ec.europa.eu/chafea/agri/faq.html by 5.4.2018 17.00 CET (Central European Time).

Frequently asked questions are published on the website of Chafea: http://ec.europa.eu/chafea/agri/faq.html

After the deadline for submission, modifications to the application are impossible.

		ISSN 1977-091X
Official Journal of the European Union		C 9

English edition	Information and Notices	Volume 61 12 January 2018

Notice No	Contents	page
	II Information
	INFORMATION FROM EUROPEAN UNION INSTITUTIONS, BODIES, OFFICES AND AGENCIES
	European Commission
2018/C 9/01	Non-opposition to a notified concentration (Case M.8723 — Aviva Investors/ERAFP/Place des Halles Shopping Centre) ( 1 )	1
2018/C 9/02	Non-opposition to a notified concentration (Case M.8731 — COMSA/Mirova/PGGM/Cedinsa Concessionària) ( 1 )	1
2018/C 9/03	Non-opposition to a notified concentration (Case M.8707 — CPPIB/Allianz/GNF/GNDB) ( 1 )	2

	IV Notices
	NOTICES FROM EUROPEAN UNION INSTITUTIONS, BODIES, OFFICES AND AGENCIES
	European Commission
2018/C 9/04	Euro exchange rates	3
2018/C 9/05	Opinion of the Advisory Committee on restrictive practices and dominant positions given at its meeting of 20 June 2017 regarding a draft decision relating to Case AT.39740 — Google Search (Shopping) — Rapporteur: Cyprus	4
2018/C 9/06	Opinion of the Advisory Committee on restrictive practices and dominant positions given at its meeting of 26 June 2017 regarding a draft decision relating to Case AT.39740 — Google Search (Shopping) — Rapporteur: Cyprus	5
2018/C 9/07	Final Report of the Hearing Officer (Case AT.39740 — Google Search (Shopping))	6
2018/C 9/08	Summary of Commission decision of 27 June 2017 relating to a proceeding under Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and Article 54 of the EEA Agreement (Case AT.39740 — Google Search (Shopping)) (notified under document number C(2017) 4444)	11

	V Announcements
	ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURES
	European Commission
2018/C 9/09	2018 Call for proposals — Simple programmes — Grants to information provision and promotion measures concerning agricultural products implemented in the internal market and in third countries in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 1144/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council	15
2018/C 9/10	2018 Call for proposals — Multi programmes — Grants to information provision and promotion measures concerning agricultural products implemented in the internal market and in third countries in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 1144/2014 of the European Parliament and the Council	32
	PROCEDURES RELATING TO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE COMMON COMMERCIAL POLICY
	European Commission
2018/C 9/11	Notice concerning the anti-dumping measures in force in respect of imports to the Union of steel ropes and cables originating, inter alia, in the People’s Republic of China, as extended to imports of steel ropes and cables consigned from, inter alia, the Republic of Korea, whether declared as originating in the Republic of Korea or not	50
	PROCEDURES RELATING TO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF COMPETITION POLICY
	European Commission
2018/C 9/12	Prior notification of a concentration (Case M.8715 — CVC/TMF) — Candidate case for simplified procedure ( 1 )	51

	Currency	Exchange rate
USD	US dollar	1,2017
JPY	Japanese yen	134,19
DKK	Danish krone	7,4474
GBP	Pound sterling	0,89075
SEK	Swedish krona	9,8203
CHF	Swiss franc	1,1736
ISK	Iceland króna
NOK	Norwegian krone	9,6735
BGN	Bulgarian lev	1,9558
CZK	Czech koruna	25,547
HUF	Hungarian forint	309,43
PLN	Polish zloty	4,1785
RON	Romanian leu	4,6413
TRY	Turkish lira	4,5648
AUD	Australian dollar	1,5281
CAD	Canadian dollar	1,5093
HKD	Hong Kong dollar	9,4002
NZD	New Zealand dollar	1,6653
SGD	Singapore dollar	1,6006
KRW	South Korean won	1 282,33
ZAR	South African rand	14,9744
CNY	Chinese yuan renminbi	7,8127
HRK	Croatian kuna	7,4538
IDR	Indonesian rupiah	16 102,18
MYR	Malaysian ringgit	4,7905
PHP	Philippine peso	60,589
RUB	Russian rouble	68,4650
THB	Thai baht	38,460
BRL	Brazilian real	3,8858
MXN	Mexican peso	23,3050
INR	Indian rupee	76,5335