Eligibility assessment

The eligibility assessment is a ‘yes or no’ process. This means that the eligibility assessment does not allow for any flexibility in the way the criteria are applied.

In the Interreg Europe first call, one third of the applications failed to pass the eligibility step.

Applicants are therefore highly encouraged to carefully study the criteria below and to check before submitting whether they fulfil each of these criteria. The non-fulfilment of one criterion leads to the ineligibility of the whole application.

All the following eligibility questions have to be answered in the affirmative in order to pass the first step of the selection procedure:

Eligibility criteria

Overview

Eligibility criteria

1. Respect of deadline Is the application online submitted in due time?

2. Completeness of the application

Is the application complete?

3. Correctness of the application form

Is the application form fully and properly filled in according to the instructions?

4. Correctness of the partner declaration

Are the partner declarations correct?

5. Correctness of the support letter

If applicable, are the letters of support correct?

6. Geographical coverage

Does the project involve partners from at least three countries, of which at least two partners are from EU Member States and are financed by the Interreg Europe programme?

7. Focus on Structural Funds

Are at least half of the policy instruments addressed by the EU partners represented in the project Structural Funds programmes?

Further details on each criterion:

Criterion 1: Respect of deadline

Is the application online submitted in due time?

The application comprises the application form and its compulsory annexes, meaning partner declarations and if applicable, letter(s) of support. The iOLF system ensures that it is not technically possible to submit an application form and its annexes after the call ends.

Criterion 2: Completeness of the application Is the application complete, i.e. does it include:

 the application form?

 the signed partner declarations (scanned versions) for all the partners listed in the application, including for the lead partner?

 if applicable, the signed support letters (scanned versions) for all the partners concerned? In particular when several partners address the same policy

instrument and none of them is the policy responsible body, have all these partners provided a letter of support?

Criterion 3: Correctness of the application form

Is the application fully and properly filled in according to the instructions? Is it in English?

In order to help applicants, the online application form provides error messages when elements of the form are not properly filled in (e.g. empty cells). However, the functionalities cannot be exhaustive. For instance, even if text is provided in one cell, the system cannot check whether this text is in English or whether it is meaningful (e.g. if ‘not applicable’ is indicated in a section, this will be considered as not properly filled in) . The absence of error messages does not guarantee that the application form is properly filled in. Applicants should carefully follow the instructions provided in the application form itself.

Criterion 4: Correctness of the partner declarations For each partner declaration:

 is it signed?

 is the name of the partner indicated in the declaration identical to the name of the partner indicated in the application form?

 Is the programme model used and, besides the fields to be filled, have no amendments been made to the text?

Criterion 5: Correctness of the letter of support For each support letter:

 is it signed?

 is the name of the partner(s) indicated in the letter identical to the name of the partner(s) indicated in the application form for the concerned policy instrument?

 is the name of the institution signing the letter identical to the name of the institution indicated as responsible for the policy instrument in the application form?

 Is the name of the policy instrument indicated in the letter identical to the name of the policy instrument indicated in the application form?

 is the programme model used and, besides the fields to be filled in, is the text free of amendments?

 when the letter is related to Structural Funds, is the signatory organisation included in the list provided under the ‘In my country’ pages of the programme website?

Criterion 6: Geographical coverage

Does the project involve partners from at least three countries, of which at least two partners are from EU Member States and are financed by the Interreg Europe programme?

This eligibility rule directly derives from the ETC Regulation No 1299/2013.

Criterion 7: Focus on Structural Funds

Are at least half of the policy instruments that are addressed by the EU partners involved in the project Structural Funds programmes? This eligibility rule reflects the new objective set for interregional cooperation in article of the ETC Regulation No 1299/2013. Applicants should be extremely careful when completing the related question in section B.2 of the application form (i.e. ‘is this policy instrument a Structural Funds programme?’). To answer

‘yes’ to this question, it is not sufficient that the policy instrument addressed is linked to Structural Funds but this policy instrument should be the Structural Funds programme itself. For instance, the Sustainability Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP) of a specific city cannot be considered as an Operational Programme even if this SUMP is fully financed through Structural Funds. To be considered as Structural Funds, the applicant would need to describe in section B.2 of the application form the corresponding investment priority of the Operational Programme and not the SUMP itself.

This last eligibility criterion is checked only once at the application stage.