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Keeping non-compliant products from the EU market
Deadline: Oct 15, 2019  
CALL EXPIRED

 Food Safety
 Entrepreneurship and SMEs
 Innovation
 Single Market
 Consumer Protection
 Business Development

The legal basis for this call for proposals is the Commission Decision of 16/01/2019 C(2019)76 on the financing of the activity ’Internal market for goods and services’ and of certain actions under the activity ’European satellite navigation programmes (EGNOS and Galileo)’ and on the adoption of the work programme for 2019. The annual financing decision constitutes the annual work programme for the implementation of the internal market policies for 2019, as set out in its Annex. The appropriations for the activity "Internal market for goods and services" are included under the budget line 02 03 01 “Operation and development of the internal market of goods and services” and this call for proposals is related to the action “Support to joint actions and capacity building” which can be found at can be found at chapter 1.1.2.4.

The free movement of products is the most developed and best established of the four freedoms making up the EU Single Market. It is easier than ever before to buy and sell in and across 28 Member States with a combined population of approximately 507 million. Consumers and other users have a wide choice and are able to shop around for the best offers, safe in the knowledge that the products they buy have been rigorously tested to ensure they are safe. Producers can reap the economies of scale that ensue from the world's biggest market. A well-functioning Single Market is vital for Europe's prosperity and to ensure this every single cog in the machinery must work properly.

Harmonisation rules have now been put in place for most products but a good legislative framework is only as effective as those using it allow it to be. The Single Market can only be fair for people and businesses if all market players play by the rules. Alongside responsible economic operators, prepared to adapt their methods and incur the costs necessary to comply with the law, there will always be those that distort competition by unscrupulous behaviour. Unfortunately, unsafe and non-compliant products still find their way onto the market. People still suffer harm and harmful products still pollute the environment.

Market surveillance is the answer. Market surveillance is an activity that is carried out by the authorities of the Member States of the Union. It should enable unsafe or otherwise harmful products to be identified and kept or taken off the market and unscrupulous or even criminal operators punished. It should also act as a powerful deterrent when necessary. Close cooperation and coordination of market surveillance activities in the EU is therefore essential.

 

 

2. OBJECTIVE OF THE CALL

However, there are emerging challenges concerning market surveillance as the mechanisms and functioning of the markets are changing. One of the fundamental challenges concerns the increasing number of non-compliant products that are finding their way to consumers via online platforms. Several recent e-commerce investigations found a very high level, sometimes nearly 100% non-compliance of products inspected. The present control regime is focused on inspecting goods in physical stores and controlling EU-traders’ import from third countries. There is in practice no – or very little - control of consumer’s private e-commerce and parcels from outside the EU. Consequently, sellers on e-commerce intermediaries cannot be monitored by the market surveillance authorities to the same degree as traditional sales channels are.

The objective of this call for proposals is to enhance cooperation and coordination among Member States and/or European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries which are members of the European Economic Area (EEA) with regard to market surveillance activities on e-commerce and contribute to the strengthening of operational market surveillance capacities of their authorities with respect to e-commerce.

This call for proposals aims at providing financial support to new working tools with regard to e-commerce, for market surveillance authorities and customs. Ideally, these new working tools should facilitate the pooling of resources and expertise and should be SME-friendly. These working tools should also enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of market surveillance systems in Europe. Specifically, these working tools could include the development or the incorporation of new technologies into e-commerce market surveillance systems, in order to identify the non-compliant products that are finding their way to EU consumers via online platforms and possibly also in order to instruct the online platform or the seller to take action against these products.

 

3. TIMETABLE

(a) Publication of the call

August 2019

(b) Deadline for submitting applications

15/10/2019 - 17:00 hrs

(c) Evaluation period

October 2019

(d) Information to applicants

November 2019

(e) Signature of grant agreement

December 2019

 

4. BUDGET AVAILABLE

The total budget earmarked for the co-financing of projects under this call for proposals is estimated at 677.960 EUR.

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

 

5. ADMISSIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

In order to be admissible, applications must be:
 sent no later than the deadline for submitting applications referred to in section 3;

submitted in writing (see section 14), using the electronic submission system available at:

https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/submission/manage/secure/createdraft?callId=310 -G- GRO-IMA-1134-10945-2019&s fs =ENT-EIP-GEN&preregtype=Topic&preregvalue=310 -G-GRO- IMA-1134-10945-2019

and

 drafted in one of the EU official languages.
Failure to comply with those requirements will lead to rejection of the application.

 

6. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

6.1. Eligible applicants

Proposals may be submitted by any of the following applicants:  non-profit organisation (private or public)
 public authorities (national, regional, local)

Affiliated entities

Entities affiliated1 to the applicants are not eligible to receive funding under this Call for proposals.

Country of establishment

Only applications from legal entities established in the following countries are eligible:

  •   EU Member States

  •   European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries which are members of the European

 

 

 

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 II.17.2.1 of the grant agreement.

In accordance with Article 187 FR, entities that satisfy the eligibility criteria and that do not fall within one of the situations referred to in Articles 136(1) and 141(1) FR and that have a link with the applicant, in particular a legal or capital link, which is neither limited to the action nor established for the sole purpose of its implementation, will be considered as entities affiliated to the applicant.

Economic Area (EEA)

Supporting documents

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, extract of trade or association register, certificate of liability to VAT (if, as in certain countries, the trade register number and VAT number are identical, only one of these documents is required);
  •  public entity: copy of the resolution, decision or other official document establishing the public-law entity

6.2. Eligible activities

The following types of activities are eligible under this call for proposals:

  •   IT development activities in the field of e-commerce surveillance: Upgrading and interlinking of IT systems, investment in hard and software for market- knowledge or intelligence gathering, internet investigations and operational expenditure to support coordinated surveillance;

  •   Development of other working tools with regard to e-commerce, allowing for market surveillance authorities and customs.

    Implementation period
    The maximum duration of projects is 24 months.

    Applications for projects scheduled to run for a longer period than that specified in this call for proposals will not be accepted.

 

7. EXCLUSION CRITERIA

7.1. Exclusion

The authorising officer shall exclude an applicant from participating in call for proposals procedures where:

  1. (a)  the applicant is bankrupt, subject to insolvency or winding-up procedures, its assets are being administered by a liquidator or by a court, it is in an arrangement with creditors, its business activities are suspended, or it is in any analogous situation arising from a similar procedure provided for under EU or national laws or regulat io ns ;

  2. (b)  it has been established by a final judgment or a final administrative decision that the applicant is in breach of its obligations relating to the payment of taxes or social security contributions in accordance with the applicable law;

  3. (c)  it has been established by a final judgment or a final administrative decision that the applicant is guilty of grave professional misconduct by having violated applicable laws or regulations or ethical standards of the profession to which the applicant belongs, or by having engaged in any wrongful intent or gross negligence, including, in particular, any of the following:

    1. (i)  fraudulently or negligently misrepresenting information required for the verification of the absence of grounds for exclusion or the fulfilment of eligibility or selection criteria or in the performance of a contract, a grant agreement or a grant decision;

    2. (ii)  entering into agreement with other applicants with the aim of distorting competitio n;

    3. (iii)  violating intellectual property rights;

    4. (iv)  attempting to influence the decision-making process of the Commission during the award procedure;

    5. (v)  attempting to obtain confidential information that may confer upon it undue advantages in the award procedure;

 

  1. (d)  it has been established by a final judgment that the applicant is guilty of any of the following:

    1. (i)  fraud, within the meaning of Article 3 of Directive (EU) 2017/1371 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Article 1 of the Convention on the protection of the European Communities' financial interests, drawn up by the Council Act of 26 July 1995;

    2. (ii)  corruption, as defined in Article 4(2) of Directive (EU) 2017/1371 or 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, or conduct referred to in Article 2(1) of Council Framework Decision 2003/568/JHA, or corruption as defined in the applicable law;

    3. (iii)  conduct related to a criminal organisation, as referred to in Article 2 of Council Framework Decision 2008/841/JHA;

    4. (iv)  money laundering or terrorist financing within the meaning of Article 1(3), (4) and (5) of Directive (EU) 2015/849 of the European Parliament and of the Council;

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

    6. (vi)  child labour or other offences concerning trafficking in human beings as referred to in Article 2 of Directive 2011/36/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council;

  2. (e)  the applicant has shown significant deficiencies in complying with main obligations in the performance of a contract, a grant agreement or a grant decision financed by the Union's 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;

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

  4. (g)  It has been established by a final judgement or final administrative decision that the applicant has created an entity in a different jurisdiction with the intent to circumvent fiscal, social or any other legal obligations of mandatory application in the jurisdiction of its registered office, central administration or principal place of business;

  5. (h)  it has been established by a final judgement or final administrative decision that an entity has been created with the intent referred to in point (g);

  6. (i)  for the situations referred to in points (c) to (h) above, the applicant is subject to:

    1. (i) facts established in the context of audits or investigations carried out by European Public Prosecutor's Office after its establishment, the Court of Auditors, the European Anti-Fraud Office or the internal auditor, or any other check, audit or control performed under the responsibility of an authorising officer of an EU institution, of a European office or of an EU agency or body;
    2. (ii)  non-final judgments or non-final administrative decisions which may include disciplinary measures taken by the competent supervisory body responsible for the verification of the application of standards of professional ethics;
    3. (iii)  facts referred to in decisions of persons or entities being entrusted with EU budget implementation tasks;
    4. (iv)  information transmitted by Member States implementing Union funds;

    5. (v)  decisions of the Commission relating to the infringement of Union competition law or of a national competent authority relating to the infringement of Union or national competition law; or

    6. (vi)  decisions of exclusion by an authorising officer of an EU institution, of a European office or of an EU agency or body.

7.2. Remedial measures

If an applicant declares one of the situations of exclusion listed above (see section 7.4), it must indicate the measures it has taken to remedy the exclusion situation, thus demonstrating its reliability. This may include e.g. technical, organisational and personnel measures to correct the conduct and prevent further occurrence, compensation of damage or payment of fines or of any taxes or social security contributions. The relevant documentary evidence which illustrates the remedial measures taken must be provided in annex to the declaration. This does not apply for situations referred in point (d) of section 7.1.

7.3. Rejection from the call for proposals

The authorising officer shall not award a grant to an applicant who:

  1. (a)  is in an exclusion situation established in accordance with section 7.1; or

  2. (b)  has misrepresented the information required as a condition for participating in the procedure or has failed to supply that information; or

  3. (c)  was previously involved in the preparation of documents used in the award procedure where this entails a breach of the principle of equal treatment, including distortion of competition, that cannot be remedied otherwise.

The same exclusion criteria apply to affiliated entities.

Administrative sanctions (exclusion) may be imposed on applicants, or affiliated entities where applicable], if any of the declarations or information provided as a condition for participating in this procedure prove to be false.

7.4. Supporting documents

Applicants and affiliated entities must provide a declaration on their honour certifying that they are not in one of the situations referred to in Articles 136(1) and 141 FR, by filling in the relevant form attached to the application form accompanying the call for proposals and available at:

https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/submiss ion/manage/secure/createdraft?callId=310-G- GRO-IMA-1134-10945-2019&s fs =ENT-EIP-GEN&preregtype=Topic&preregvalue=310 -G-GRO- IMA-1134-10945-2019

This obligation may be fulfilled in one of the following ways:

 

Option 1 – for mono-beneficiary grants:

  1. (i)  the applicant signs a declaration in its name and on behalf of its affiliated entities; OR

  2. (ii)  the applicant and its affiliated entities each sign a separate declaration in their own name.

Option 2 – for multi-beneficiary grants:

  1. (i)  the coordinator of a consortium signs a declaration on behalf of all applicants and their affiliated entities; OR

  2. (ii)  each applicant in the consortium signs a declaration in its name and on behalf of its affiliated entities; OR

  3. (iii)  each applicant in the consortium and the affiliated entities each sign a separate declaration in their own name.

 

8. SELECTION CRITERIA

8.1. Financial capacity

Applicants must have stable and sufficient sources of funding to maintain their activity throughout the duration of the grant and to participate in its funding. The applicants' financial capacity will be assessed on the basis of the following supporting documents to be submitted with the application:

 a declaration on their honour
[In the case of legal entities forming one applicant (the “sole applicant”), as specified in

section 6.1, the above requirements apply to each one of those entities.]

On the basis of the documents submitted, if the Commission considers that financial capacity is wek, s/he may:

  • -  request further information;

  • -  decide not to give pre-financing;

  • -  decide to give pre-financing paid in instalments;

  • -  decide to give pre-financing covered by a bank guarantee (see section 11.4 below);

  • -  where applicable, require the joint and several financial liability of all the co-beneficiaries.

If the RAO considered that the financial capacity is insufficient, s/he will reject the applicatio n.

8.2. Operational capacity

Applicants must have the professional competencies as well as appropriate qualifications necessary to complete the proposed action. In this respect, applicants have to submit a declaration on their honour, and the following supporting documents:

 curriculum vitae or description of the profile of the people primarily responsible for managing and implementing the operation;

 an exhaustive lists of previous projects and activities performed by the people primarily responsible for managing and implementing the operation.

In the case of legal entities forming one applicant (the "sole" applicant), as specified in section 6.1, the above requirements apply to each one of those entities.

 

9. AWARD CRITERIA

Eligible applications/projects will be assessed on the basis of the following criteria (total 100 points):

  •   the relevance of the project and the contribution of its expected results to the objectives of the call (20 points),

  •   the effectiveness and rationale of the proposed methodology and organisation (including the timetable and monitoring) (20 points),

  •   cost effectiveness of the proposed action, and in particular the relevance and quality of the means of implementation and the resources deployed in relation to the objectives envisaged (10 points),

  •   the participation of as many Member States as possible and resulting geographical coverage (10 points),

  •   the European dimension of the project (10 points),

  •   the innovative nature of the action or project (10 points),

  •   the expected multiplying effect (10 points),

  •   the impact and dissemination of the expected results (10 points).

    If a total score lower than 60 points is obtained, the proposal will not be evaluated further.

 

10. LEGAL COMMITMENTS

In the event of a grant awarded by the Commission, a grant agreement drawn up in euro and detailing the conditions and level of funding, will be sent to the applicant, as well as the information on the procedure to formalise the agreement of the parties.

Two copies of the original agreement must be signed first by the beneficiary and returned to the Commission immediately. The Commission will sign it last.

The applicants understand that submission of a grant application implies acceptance of the general conditions attached to this call for proposals. These general conditions bind the beneficiary to whom the grant is awarded and shall constitute an annex to the grant decision.

 

11. FINANCIAL PROVISIONS

11.1. Form of the grant

11.1.1 Reimbursement of costs actually incurred
The grant will be defined by applying a maximum co-financing rate of 90% to the

eligible costs actually incurred and declared by the beneficiary.

11.2. Eligible costs

Eligible costs shall meet all the following criteria:

  • they are incurred by the beneficiary.
  • they are incurred during the duration of the action, with the exception of costs relating to final reports and audit certificates;
  • The period of eligibility of costs will start as specified in the grant agreement.
  • they are indicated in the estimated budget of the action;
  • they are necessary for the implementation of the action which is the subject of the grant;
  • they are identifiable and verifiable, in particular being recorded in the accounting records of the beneficiary and determined according to the applicable accounting standards of the country where the beneficiary is established and according to the usual cost accounting practices of the beneficiary;
  • they comply with the requirements of applicable tax and social legislation;
  • they are reasonable, justified, and comply with the principle of sound financial management, in particular regarding economy and efficiency.
  • beneficiary's internal accounting and auditing procedures must permit direct

 



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