Following the adoption of Decision C(2010) 7499 (see previous post analysing Commission's Decision), the first call for proposals under the Commission's Decision has been published in today's Official Journal (OJ c 302, 09.11.2010, p.4).
The full text of the call is available HERE or on the "NER 300 Website" of the Commission's DG Climate Action at: http://ec.europa.eu/clima/funding/ner300/index_en.htm.
Who can submit a proposal - The project sponsor can either be a single project operator or a consortium.
Level of support - Under the call, and pursuant to the Commission's Decision, the financing threshold is fixed at 50% of the relevant costs (defined in point 4.5 of the call), except when the project sponsors provides more than 50%, which involves a consequent and proportional reduction of the NER 300 financing. In order to ensure that the requested technologies adn developed and that a certain geographical balance is kept, the total amount of funding to an individual project is limited to 15% of the total funding available (point 4.4 of the call). Some rules also apply to the combination of aids to the same project (point 4.6). Projects that accumulate support must clear any state aid issues, in particular whether it is necessary to notify additional state aids to the Commission. The NER 300 support in itself is not a state aid since it does not involve state resources (see point 6).
Submission procedure - Project sponsors must submit their application to the competent Member State by 9 February 2011. Member States will then procede to the eligibility assessment by 9 May 2011, deadline for submission to the European Investment Bank. The EIB should provides the Commission with its list of selected project 15 months after publication of the call, which means by the end of 2011/beginning 2012. The Commission should take its Award Decisions in the second half of 2012. Meanwhile, the legally binding instruments necessary to the implementation of the projects must be in place between the Member State and the project sponsors (Article 11 of the Decision, Annex 4 of the call). The project must be submitted in the country where it will be implemented, even if the project sponsors are from a different Member State. However, some project can be of trans-boundary nature. In that case, the Member State receiving the application must contact the other Member State concerned. The criteria for trans-boundary projects are defined in the call.
Forms - Different forms apply to the different sub-categories. All the documents are available on the Commission's website.
Additional reference: European Commission Press Release IP/10/1476 of 09.11.2010.
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