Visegrad+

The Visegrad+ Program was estab­lished in 2008 from the so-called Flexible Fund. Visegrad+ is a grant pro­gram cre­ated to admin­is­ter and finance projects which con­tribute to the democ­ra­ti­za­tion and trans­for­ma­tion processes in selected coun­tries and regions, espe­cially non-EU mem­ber states in Eastern Europe, the Western Balkans and the South Caucasus (coun­tries within the EU’s Eastern Partnership).

So far projects were focused on Belarus, Serbia and Georgia (see pre­vi­ously approved project pro­pos­als).

The pri­or­ity tar­get coun­tries, pri­or­ity ori­en­ta­tion and project top­ics for Visegrad+ projects are defined and approved by the deci­sion of the Conference of Ministers. Calls for pro­pos­als are announced on the Fund’s web­site. Projects are reviewed and admin­is­tered by the Fund’s Executive Director and the Public Relations Coordinator; projects selected by the National V4 Coordinators are for­mally approved by the Conference of Ministers. Project top­ics are selected in com­pli­ance with the Statute of the Fund.

Currently there are no calls for pro­pos­als.

Previously approved projects:

2010—Focus Georgia

Vocational Training Development Focused on Georgian IDPs and NGO Empowerment with Emphasis on V4 Transformation and EU Accession

Goals: retrain­ing, voca­tional train­ing, devel­op­ment of social enterprise

Grantee: Czech Fundraising Center (České cen­trum fundraisingu), Prague (CZ)

Approved bud­get: €120,000

Implementation period: 2010–2011

Vocational Trainings for Vulnerable IDPs in Georgia

Goals: train­ing work­shops (busi­ness English, com­puter literacy)

Grantee: Hungarian Baptist Aid (Baptista Szeretetszolgálat Alapítvány), Budapest (HU)

Approved bud­get: €75,000

Implementation period: 2011–2012

Sharing V4 Experience of the EU Integration: Technical Assistance in the Areas of Legislation Reform and Cooperation with NGOs

Goals: empow­er­ing Georgian civil soci­ety, cre­at­ing a base for decen­tral­iza­tion, devel­op­ment of mon­i­tor­ing and advo­cacy capac­i­ties of NGOs

Grantee: Foundation for Development of Democratic Rights (DemNet), Budapest (HU)

Approved bud­get: €90,000

Implementation period: 2011

Empowering National Minorities through Developing Civil Society in Minority-Populated Regions of Georgia

Goals: devel­op­ment of insti­tu­tional capac­ity of minor­ity NGOs (capac­ity train­ings, small grants, dia­log with gov­ern­ment representatives)

Grantee: European Centre for Minority Issues—Caucasus, Tbilisi (GE)

Approved bud­get: €60,000

Implementation period: 2011

2009—Focus Serbia

Learning from Experience: V4 Countries

Goals: orga­niz­ing a con­fer­ence, pro­duc­ing a 45″ doc­u­men­tary film, pub­lish­ing of a brochure

Grantee: Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia, Belgrade (RS)

Approved bud­get: €79,000

Implementation period: 2009–2011

Political Parties and Engaged Public (Encouragement of Civil Engagement to Control Leadership of Political Parties)

Goals: train­ing in pub­lic engage­ment of NGO rep­re­sen­ta­tives, inde­pen­dent jour­nal­ists, pro­fes­sional associations

Grantee: Center for Development of Civil Society (Centar za razvoj civilnog društva), Zrenjanin (RS)

Approved bud­get: €60,000

Implementation period: 2010–2012

2009—Focus Belarus

Presentation of the Literature of the Visegrad Group Countries to the Belarusian Society

Goals: trans­la­tion into Belarusian and pub­lish­ing of V4 literature

Grantee: East European Democratic Center, Warsaw (PL)

Approved bud­get: €154,440

Implementation period: 2009–2011

Transfer of Visegrad Countries’ Experience in the Education System Reform

Goals: cre­ation of mod­ern teach­ing method­olo­gies; draft­ing a con­cept of new edu­ca­tion sys­tem and a cur­ricu­lum in human­i­ties; cre­at­ing a net­work of Belarusian experts in the field of education

Grantee: Association for International Affairs (Asociace pro mez­inárodní otázky), Prague (CZ)

Approved bud­get: €200,000

Implementation period: 2009–2011

2008—Focus Belarus

Promotion Campaign in Belarusian Media

Goals: adver­tise­ments and PR arti­cles about the Visegrad Group and the International Visegrad Fund and its pro­grams in print and elec­tronic media)

Grantees: Civic Belarus (Občanské Bělorusko), Prague (CZ); College of Eastern Europe (Kolegium Europy Wschodniej), Wrocław (PL)

Approved bud­get: €80,000

Implementation period: 2008–2009