Welcome to LIFE

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Welcome to LIFE
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SUMMARY
General
What is LIFE ?
LIFE-Environment
Who can apply ?
Financial support
How to apply ?
Selection of proposals
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Treaty of Amsterdam, Art 174

• Community policy on the environment
• preserving, protecting and improving the quality
  of the environment
• protecting human health
• prudent and rational utilisation of natural
  resources
• promoting measures at international level to deal
  with regional or worldwide environmental problems.

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European environment policy

• Precautionary principle pollution should be
  rectified at source
• Preventive principle
• Polluter pays principle
• Principle of integration
• Utilisation of technical and scientific data

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Sixth Environment Action Programme 2001-2010

• Environmental Policy
• innovative in its approach
• seek new ways of working with a wide cross
  section of society
• Full enforcement of all existing legislation
• LIFE together with other instruments (EMAS,
  Ecolabel) contributes to an effective
  implementation of the policy

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What is LIFE?

• Financial instrument supporting EC environmental
  policy and legislation
• Co-financing actions favourable to the
  environment
• Active in EU countries, accession countries and
  countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea and
  Baltic Sea

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LIFE III General Objectives

• LIFE co-finances environmental actions that
• contribute to the implementation, updating and
  development of Community environment policy and
  legislation, in particular as regards the
  integration of the environment into other
  policies, and to sustainable development in the
  Community.

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LIFE III Legal Framework

• European Parliament and Council Regulation
  1655/2000
• (OJ L 192 of the 28 July 2000)
• www.europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/lif/dat/2000/en_300R1
  655.html

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LIFE phases and areas of action

• Launched in 1992
• LIFE phase I (1992-1995) 400 m
• LIFE phase II (1996-1999) 450 m
• LIFE phase III (2000-2004) 640 m
• Areas of action
• LIFE-Environment (47 of budget)
• LIFE-Nature (47 of budget)
• LIFE-Third Countries (6 of budget)

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LIFE figures

• Since 1992 2.257 projects supported by LIFE
• 1.310 LIFE-Environment
• 770 LIFE-Nature
• 177 LIFE-Third Countries

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Participating countries

• EU Countries
• Some candidate countries
• Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Romania, Slovenia,
  Slovakia
• Some third countries
• Albania, Algeria, Boznia-Herzegovina, Croatia,
  Cyprus, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Malta,
  Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, the West Bank
  and Gaza, and the Baltic shoreline of Russia.

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LIFE - Environment

• to contribute to the development of
  innovative and integrated techniques and methods,
  and to the further development of Community
  environment policy

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Type of projects (1)

• Demonstration projects (neither Research nor
  Investment in existing technologies)
• Project duration usually between 1.5 and 3 years
• Project total budget usually between 1.000.000
  and 5.000.000 EURO
• Clear link with EU policy/legislation

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Type of projects (2)

• Address a environmental problem with broad
  relevance
• Innovative/Progress The project must show that
  it is based on a new idea that brings the issue
  further
• Transferability The results can be reproduced
  and transfered to other potential users
• Dissemination strategy

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LIFE-Environment Themes

• Land-use development and planning
• Water management
• Impact of economic activities
• Waste management
• Integrated production policy

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Land-use Development and Planning

• Aim
• promote the integration of environmental and
  sustainable development considerations into land
  use development and planning
• Fields of actions
• Urban environment
• Air quality and noise abatement
• Integrated Coastal Zone Management

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Impacts of Economic Activities

• Aim
• minimise the environmental impacts of economic
  activities
• Fields of actions
• Clean technologies
• Integrated environment management
• Reduction of emission of gases having a
  greenhouse effect
• Sustainable tourism

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Waste Management

• Aim
• Prevention, reuse, recovery and recycling of
  waste of all kinds and sound management of waste
  streams
• Fields of actions
• Packaging and plastics
• Hazardous or problematic waste
• Waste important in volume

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Integrated Product Policy

• Aim
• Reduce the environmental impact of products
  through an integrated approach to the production,
  distribution, consumption and handling at the end
  of lifetime
• Fields of actions
• Eco-design, eco-efficiency, green financial
  products
• Eco-labelling

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Community financial contribution

• Maximum 50 of the eligible costs of the
  projects
• Reduced to 30 for projects expected to generate
  significant income
• Project can not benefit from other sources of
  Community funding

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Who can apply?

• All legal entities established in the
  participating countries
• Individuals
• Industrial companies
• Commercial firms
• Local authorities
• NGOs
• Proposals submitted by a single applicant
• but partnership may be envisaged

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Different roles to play

• Beneficiary
• Partner(s)
• Co-funder(s)
• Subcontractor(s)

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The Beneficiary

• Legally and financially responsible for the
  implementation of the project
• Single point of contact for the Commission
• Receives the financial contribution of the
  Commission and assures the distribution of this
  financial contribution to the partners
• Contributes financially to the project

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The Partner(s)

• Contributes to one or several of the tasks and to
  the costs incurred
• Can benefit from the financial contribution of
  the Commission
• Provide the beneficiary with information required
  for technical and financial reporting to the
  Commission.

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The Co-funder(s)

• Contributes with financial resources to the
  project
• Does not benefit from the Community contribution
• Is not required to be directly involved in the
  project

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The Subcontractor(s)

• Provide external services
• the beneficiary and/or the partners fully pay for
  the services
• Specific tasks and fixed duration

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Eligible Costs

• Provided for in the provisional budget
• Directly necessary for the project
• Reasonable
• Incurred during the lifetime of the project
• (more details in SAP)

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Some ineligible costs

• Land purchase
• Research and technological development activities
• Costs for intellectual property right protection
• Exchange rate losses
• (more details in SAP)

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Budget Lines (1)

• Personnel Costs actual time devoted to the
  project (time sheets)
• Travel Costs charged in accordance with the
  internal rules of the beneficiary or partner.
• External Assistance sub-contracting costs
  (normally maximum 35 of total eligible project
  costs)

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Budget Lines (2)

• Durable goods
• Different depreciation rates are applied during
  the project period
• Infrastructure 25 of incurred costs
• Equipment 50 of incurred costs
• Prototype 100 of incurred costs

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Budget Lines (3)

• Other costs
• Any cost necessary for the project, not falling
  within a defined category (e.g. bank guarantee,
  independent auditor)
• Must not exceed 5 of total eligible costs
• Overheads
• Indirect costs needed to employ, manage,
  accommodate and support the personnel on the
  project
• Maximum 7 of eligible direct costs of the project

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External Monitoring Teams

• Supporting the Commission in the follow-up of the
  project
• Explaining rules and practices
• Not entitled to take any decision on behalf of
  the Commission
• Not involved in the management of the financial
  resources
• Helping the Commission to assess the project
  progress at the technical level
• Acting under confidentiality rules
• Independent from the projects

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How to apply?

• Yearly call for projects
• Standard application forms (downloadable from web
  site)
• National authorities set deadline
• Project proposals submitted to the national
  authorities
• National authorities forward the proposals to the
  European Commission

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Timing of evaluation
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Preparation of Project Proposal

• Identify clearly the environmental problems to be
  solved
• See wether the project is in line with the
  guideliness and the general rules
• Verify if objectives of other Community
  programmes do not better correspond to your
  project
• http//europa.eu.int/comm/secretariat_general/sgc/
  info_subv/index_en.htm

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LogFrame for project development

• Overall objective
• Project objective
• Expected results
• Activities to be undertaken
• Assumptions / Risks
• Monitoring indicators
• Sources of verification

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Some advice

• Plan carefully how the project will be managed
  and organised
• Define clearly the participation of the different
  partners of the project.
• Make sure that the budget is coherent with the
  actions proposed.
• Read carefully the Standard Administrative
  Provisions and the guidelines to the application
  forms.

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Selection of proposals

• 1. Admissibility
• Signature, All forms, Electronic version
• 2. Eligibility
• Financial and technical soundness
• 3. Evaluation
• Technical and thematic
• Bonus multinational approach, SME / Job creation

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Technical evaluation

• Coherence
• Organisation
• partnership, roles, management
• Planning
• Durability
• General quality
• Integration
• Demonstration, Dissemination

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Thematic evaluation

• Community interest
• Environmental problem
• Geographical extent
• Cooperation
• Transferability
• Innovatory nature
• Cost/Benefit ratio

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Eligibility

• Technical soundness of participants (experience
  and expertise to carry out the project)
• Financial soundness of participants
• Compliance with the LIFE III Regulation and LIFE
  guidelines

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ESAP

• Evaluation Selection Award Procedure
• Internal Online tool to support the evaluation
  procedure as well as to improve exchange of
  information between evaluators

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Contacts

• Page to be adapted at each presentation
• Ministry for Environment
• DO in the LIFE Unit (EC)
• LIFE external monitoring team

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