Page 114 - Proceeding 2015

FAMP NASTASEANU Ariana
CCASP SMART SPECIALIZATION STRATEGIES AND EMPOWERING CITIZENS

mostly the SMEs which have limited resources (human resources and financial) and the ‘Seal of

Excellence’ certificate will be awarded to the applicants of above threshold not funded proposals and
present the certificate as a label of a high-quality project proposal. Thanks to the ‘Seal’, high quality
proposals from innovative Small and Medium Enterprises will have additional chances to be funded.

Further information on funding opportunities can be obtained at the local/national level either directly with
the Managing Authorities or through Europe Enterprise Network and National Contact Point network.

It is up to each Member State or region to establish supporting funding schemes that are specifically
dedicated to these types of proposals and enable the provision of alternative funding, in compliance with

national and EU rules. A growing number of Member States and regions are already studying the best
options for implementation since fall 2015 when the measure was announced.

Regions/Member States interested in funding these types of proposals could use ESIF resources (in line

with ESIF priorities and in compliance with national and relevant EU rules) or their own national/regional
resources to grant funding without additional qualitative evaluation.

It should be noticed that the two fundamental rules of the EU financial regulation remain valid for the

above described synergies: PROCEEDINGS OF THE 11 TH ADMINISTRATION AND PUBLIC MANAGEMENT INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ”Strategic Management for Local Communities” 30 th – 31 st October 2015 Bucharest

? No substitution of national/regional or private co-funding to EU projects/programmes under direct
Commission management by ESIF money (and vice versa).

? No double financing: in no circumstances shall the same costs be financed twice by any budget.

Thus, the effort put by the consortia participants in preparing the project proposals can expect in case
that their proposal reached the threshold of the seal of excellence to be rewarded by national authorities

or by a private investor.

Other type of synergies are already happening in Poland, where KIC InnoEnergy (European Institute of
Innovation and Technology through its EIT Strategic Innovation Agenda (SIA) 2014) – signed Memoranda

of Understanding with the Managing Authorities of two regions, one being Malowpolska. In concrete terms
the cooperation foresees the exchange of knowledge and use of experts, know-how for scouting
innovative ideas etc.

5. INVOLVING CITIZENS IN DECISION-MAKING PROCESS

It is obvious that nowadays we experiment the culture of do-ocracy, a direct consequence of the fact that

active citizens don't want the government to provide standard solutions for everything. They prefer a tailor-

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