The main topics of the discussion were COVID-19, how the partners are doing during the lockdown and the new situation that has been created in Europe, the new travel restrictions. The upcoming new guides of E+ and ESC were also atopic to discuss during the introduction and any news that anyone might had. The partners also have shared the results of the last deadline of E+, projects that were approved and rejected and what they are planning for the new year. Ola and Busra said that they need to find volunteers for their ESC projects that they are currently running in Poland and Romania. Another topic to discuss was the decision of the UK to stop being part in the European funded programmes. This decision causes a lot of problems to the organisations since the volunteers need visa to participate and it is more difficult and it will cost a lot.
New Programme, plans for 2021 and E+ Accreditation
Some of the participant organisations have shared any update that they have for the upcoming new E+ guide. Aris said that there are no guidelines given to the NA from EACEA yet. The only known things are that the new deadline will be after April – probably May or June – and from 2022 the same deadlines as the previous years, will be given. Dijana, Angela and Ola had the same information and said that the new programme will be published around March – April.
As for the Key Actions, there will be some changes. As far as it is known, some parts of the KA3 will be added in the KA1 projects.
Lastly, the ESC deadline will be different from the E+, for this year probably on June. Aris said for this year that he wants to implement activities, because there are a lot of projects that were approved from previous deadlines and are still “freezed”. For Dijana, the things must change and she wants to start doing activities from March.
Angela asked if any of the organisations have applied for the E+ accreditation. Busra and Nevo Parudimos was the first to apply for the E+ accreditation and after was USB. Both of the organisations made the application more blurred and less concreate, because they don’t know what exactly the NA wants to see in the application.