Closed calls

Training of National Judges in EU Competition Law (SMP-COMP-2023-JUDG)

Deadline 06/03/2024

The objective of this call for proposals is to co-finance projects aiming to train national judges in the context of enforcing European competition rules. This includes public and private enforcement of both the Antitrust rules and the State aid rules, thereby increasing the knowledge and know-how of national judges. The final aim is to ensure a coherent and consistent application of EU competition law by national courts.

These objectives can best be achieved through projects which specifically focus on the role of national judges in the application of EU competition law, their particular needs and work environments and pre-existing training and knowledge

Projects must meet the above-mentioned objective and clearly demonstrate their EU added-value, i.e. that Union intervention in the form of funding through this grant programme can bring additional value compared to the action of Member States alone.

The target audience must consist of national judges from eligible countries dealing with competition cases, as defined in the section Objectives. This also includes prosecutors, apprentice national judges, and the staff of national courts.

The target audience as defined above is hereafter referred to as 'national judges'. Training projects not addressing national judges from an eligible country as defined in section 6 are not within the scope of the present call.

Projects should address at least one of the thematic priorities listed below but may address more than one. Under each priority listed below applicants are invited to choose a number of topics at least equal to a certain minimum.

Priority 1: Trainings on the application of Articles 101 and 102 TFEU and relevant secondary law.

Priority 2: Trainings focusing on procedural safeguards and the effective enforcement of EU competition law.

Priority 3: Trainings focusing on national laws implementing Directive 2014/104 on antitrust damages actions.

Priority 4: Trainings focusing on underlying economic principles of competition law.

Priority 5: Trainings focusing on the application of competition law in regulated industries (such as the energy, telecommunications, pharmaceutical, sectors) and digital markets.

Priority 6: Training on State Aid and the enforcement role of national courts.

Projects must include tailored training activities on EU competition law such as:

• conferences
• interactive, practice-oriented seminars and workshops
• joint study visits to EU courts;
• creation of training materials and tools for face-to-face training, blended learning or e-learning such as handbooks, manuals, case-law databases, train-the-trainer events, networking platforms, videos, podcasts, etc. in combination with the organisation of training activities listed above.

Trainings should be hands-on oriented, include case studies, refer to the relevant case law of the European Court of Justice and include an analysis of relevant EU jurisprudence.

The environment in which participative training for national judges takes place must be made sufficiently secure to enable participants to freely exchange views and experiences and to learn from one another, without external monitoring or interference. Projects are therefore at best exclusively addressed to national judges.

Projects funded under the present call should contribute to the following impacts:

• Improved coherent and consistent application of EU competition laws by national courts in the member states, including State Aid rules through the number of national judges with increased knowledge and know-how.
• Strengthened cooperation and networking possibilities among member states judges reached by the training and awareness raising activities in relation to commonly applicable EU competition laws. Enabling national judges to strive for a coherent jurisprudence when confronted with developments at the interface between competition law and new legal or economic developments.

For all further details, including the award criteria, see the full text of Call for proposals published on the Funding & tender opportunities portal.

Call for Proposals 2022: Training of National Judges in EU Competition Law (SMP-COMP-JUDG-2022)

Deadline 26/07/2022

The objective of this call for proposals is to co-finance projects aiming to train national judges in the context of enforcing European competition rules. This includes public and private enforcement of both the Antitrust rules and the State aid rules, thereby increasing the knowledge and know-how of national judges. The final aim is to ensure a coherent and consistent application of EU competition law by national courts.

These objectives can best be achieved through projects which specifically focus on the role of national judges in the application of EU competition law, their particular needs and work environments and pre-existing training and knowledge.

Projects must meet the above-mentioned objective and clearly demonstrate their EU added-value, i.e. that Union intervention in the form of funding through this grant programme can bring additional value compared to the action of Member States alone.

The target audience must consist of national judges dealing with competition cases, as defined in the section Objectives. This also includes prosecutors, apprentice national judges, and the staff of national courts.

Projects should address at least one of the thematic priorities listed below but may address more than one.

Priority 1: Training on the application of Articles 101 and 102 TFEU and relevant secondary law.

Priority 2: Training activities focusing on national laws implementing Directive 2014/104 on antitrust damages actions

Priority 3: Training activities focusing on underlying economic principles of competition law.

Priority 4: Training activities focusing on the application of competition law in regulated industries (such as the energy, telecommunications or pharmaceutical sector)

Priority 5: Training activities focusing on how to apply the traditional competition law concepts in Articles 101 and 102 to digital markets.

Priority 6: Training on State Aid, in light of State Aid Modernisation and the enforcement role of national courts.

Projects must include tailored training activities on EU competition law such as:

• conferences;
• interactive, practice-oriented seminars and workshops;
• joint study visits to EU courts;
• creation of training materials and tools for face-to-face training, blended learning or e-learning such as handbooks, manuals, case-law databases, train-the-trainer events, networking platforms, videos, podcasts, etc. in combination with organisation of training activities listed above.

Trainings should be hands-on oriented, include case studies, refer to the relevant case law of the European Court of Justice and include an analysis of relevant EU jurisprudence.

The environment in which participative training for national judges takes place must be made sufficiently secure to enable participants to freely exchange views and experiences and to learn from one another, without external monitoring or interference. Projects are therefore at best exclusively addressed to national judges.

Projects funded under the present call should contribute to the following impacts:

• Improved coherent and consistent application of EU competition laws by national courts in the member states, including State Aid rules through the number of national judges with increased knowledge and know-how.
• Strengthened cooperation and networking possibilities among member states judges reached by the training and awareness raising activities in relation to commonly applicable EU competition laws. Enabling national judges to strive for a coherent jurisprudence when confronted with developments at the interface between competition law and new legal or economic developments.

For all further details, including the award criteria, see the full text of Call for proposals published on the Funding & tender opportunities portal.

Call for proposals HT.5763: Training of national judges in EU Competition Law

New Deadline: 31/01/2021

CORRIGENDUM
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic situation and related safety measures the submission deadline for the calls for proposals HT.5763 is extended until 31 January 2021. In addition, the applicants are allowed to submit the application via e-mail. The application may be signed by using Qualified Electronic Signature (QES) instead of blue ink signature.
The corrigendum can be found here.

The new call for proposals focuses on EU competition law trainings addressing national judges dealing with competition cases at national level. This also includes prosecutors, apprentice national judges and the staff of national courts of eligible countries.

Applicants may apply for a grant between EUR 30.000 up to a maximum of EUR 300.000.

Co-financing rate is maximum 90% of the eligible costs.

The estimated start of the trainings is in the year 2022.

The projects should address the following six thematic Priorities and three Preferences.

Priorities to be considered are:

• Articles 101 and 102 TFEU
• Directive 2014/104 on antitrust damages actions
• Economic principles of competition law
• Competition law in regulated industries
• Digital Markets
• State Aid

Proposals outside of the priority topics may still be awarded grants if they are justified by a convincing evidence-based training needs assessment, demonstrating that more training is needed for the proper application of EU competition law in the suggested field.

Preference will be given to projects considering:

• Trainings foreseeing consecutive levels, building up one on another
• Trainings which not simply duplicate/overlap existing/planned training material or existing/future projects of other training providers at national level, but that act in complementarity or that innovate
• Trainings addressing judges from several member states in one training and thus encouraging cross-border networking

For further details, including the award criteria, see the full text of the Call for proposals.

Please note that in order to facilitate the administration of the projects the new Call for proposals includes simplified budget categories and reporting procedure.

Call for proposals English version 

Application form 

Annexes

Annex 1: Overview of required annexes attached 

Annex 2: Electronic copy of the complete application (on USB)

Annex 3: Financial plan and Detailed forward budget  (DOCUMENT CORRECTED ON 18-12-2020)

Annex 4: Financial identification form

Annex 5: Legal entity form

Annex 6: Declaration of honour (exclusion criteria, financial and capacity assessment) 

Annex 7: Operational capacity assessment (documents according to section 8.2. of the Call)

Annex 8: Staff's salary grids/ Unit costs for Staff (documentation: e.g. payslips)

In case of partner(s): Annex 9: Documents of Co-beneficiaries (letter of intent, Annexes 5, 6 and 7) and associate partners (letter of intent only)

Reference documents

Guide for applicants HT.5763 

Model Technical and Financial Report attached 

Applicable unit costs for accommodation, meals and refreshments 

Legal and Financial reference

The Annual Work Programme 2020 and Annex (section 3.2.2) 

Regulation 2018/1046 of 18 July 2018 on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union

Useful to know

If you are selected to sign a binding agreement with the EU Commission the herewith attached draft model agreement  gives you guidance on the content and format of the agreement which will be concluded along these lines.

Some practical advice for training providers  on how to design your project and training activities you may find in this brochure, developed by a Commission expert group on European judicial training composed of experienced judicial training practitioners from various professions and jurisdictions.

Call for proposals HT.5112: Training of national judges in EU Competition Law

Deadline 15/04/2019

The new call for proposals focuses on EU competition law trainings addressing national judges dealing with competition cases at national level. This also includes prosecutors, apprentice national judges, and the staff of the judges’ offices or of national courts of eligible countries.

Applicants may apply for a grant between EUR 30.000 up to a maximum of EUR 300.000.

The projects should address the following six thematic Priorities and three Preferences.

Priorities to be considered are:

• Articles 101 and 102 TFEU
• Directive 2014/104 on antitrust damages actions
• Economic principles of competition law
• Competition law in regulated industries
• Digital Markets
• State Aid

Preference will be given to projects considering:

• Trainings foreseeing consecutive levels, building up one on another
• Trainings which not simply duplicate/overlap existing/planned training material or existing/future projects of other training providers at national level, but that act in complementarity or that innovate
• Trainings addressing judges from several member states in one training and thus encouraging cross-border networking

For further details, including the award criteria, see the full text of the Call for proposals.

Call for proposals English version 

Application form en 

Annexes

Annex 1: Overview of required annexes en 

Annex 2: Electronic copy of the complete application (on CD or USB)

Annex 3: Financial plan and Detailed forward budget en 

Annex 4: Financial identification form

Annex 5: Legal entity form

Annex 6: Declaration of honour (exclusion criteria, financial and capacity assessment) en 

Annex 7: Operational capacity assessment (documents according to section 7.2. of the Call)

Annex 8: Staff's salary grids/ Unit costs for Staff (documentation: e.g. payslips)

In case of partner(s): Annex 9: Documents of Co-beneficiaries (letter of intent, Annexes 5, 6 and 7) and associate partners (letter of intent only)

Reference documents

Guide for applicants HT.5112 en 

Model Technical and Financial Report en 

Applicable unit costs for accommodation, meals and refreshments en 

Legal and Financial reference

The Annual Work Programme 2018 and Annex (section 3.2.2) 

Regulation 2018/1046 of 18 July 2018 on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union

Useful to know

If you are selected to sign a binding agreement with the EU Commission the herewith attached draft model agreement  gives you guidance on the content and format of the agreement which will be concluded along these lines.

Some practical advice for training providers  on how to design your project and training activities you may find in this brochure, developed by a Commission expert group on European judicial training composed of experienced judicial training practitioners from various professions and jurisdictions.

Call for proposals HT.5115: Training of national judges in EU Competition Law

Deadline 16/04/2018

The new call for proposals focuses on EU competition law trainings addressing national judges dealing with competition cases at national level. This also includes prosecutors, apprentice national judges, and the staff of the judges’ offices or of national courts of eligible countries.

Applicants may apply for a grant between EUR 50.000 up to a maximum of EUR 400.000.

The projects should address the following two Areas, six Priorities and three Preferences.

The two Areas addressed by this call are:

• Improvement of knowledge, application and interpretation of EU competition law
• Development of legal linguistic skills of national judges

Within these Areas the six Priorities to be considered are:

• Articles 101 and 102 TFEU
• Directive 2014/104 on antitrust damages actions
• Economic principles of competition law
• Competition law in regulated industries
• State aid
• Development of legal linguistic skills

Preference will be given to projects considering:

• Trainings foreseeing consecutive levels, building up one on another
• Trainings which not simply duplicate/overlap existing/planned training material or existing/future projects of other training providers at national level, but that act in complementarity or that innovate
• Trainings addressing judges from several member states in one training and thus encouraging cross-border networking

For further details see the full text of the Call for proposals.

Call for proposals 

Award criteria guidance HT.5115 
 

Application form en 

Annexes

Annex 1: Overview of required annexes en 

Annex 2: Electronic copy of the complete application (on CD or USB)

Annex 3: Financial plan and Detailed forward budget en 

Annex 4: Financial identification sheet

Annex 5: Legal entity form(for private companies and for public entities + supporting documents)

Annex 6: Declaration of honour (exclusion criteria and financial capacity assessment) en 

Annex 7: Operational capacity assessment (documents according to No.6.3.2 of the Call)

Annex 8: Staff's salary grids (documentation: e.g. payslips)

In case of partner(s): Annex 9: Documents of Co-beneficiaries (letter of intent, Annexes 5,6 and 7) and other partners (letter of intent)

Reference documents

Guide for applicants HT.5115 en 

Model Technical and Financial Report en 

Applicable unit costs for accommodation, meals and refreshments en 

Legal and Financial reference

The Annual Work Programme 2017  and Annex 

Financial Regulation and its rules of application

Useful to know

If you are selected to sign a binding agreement with the EU Commission the herewith attached draft model agreement for mono-beneficiary grants  gives you guidance on the content and format of the agreement which will be concluded along these lines.

Some practical advice for training providers on how to design your project and training activities you may find in this brochure, developed by a Commission expert group on European judicial training composed of experienced judicial training practitioners from various professions and jurisdictions.

Call for proposals 2016: Training of national judges in EU Competition Law

Deadline 31/03/2017

The new call for proposals focuses on EU competition law trainings addressing a specific target group: national judges dealing with the review of national competition authorities' decisions and all final instance judges dealing with competition law, including antitrust and state aid.

Applicants may apply for a grant between EUR 50.000 up to a maximum of EUR 400.000.

The projects should address the following two Areas, five Priorities and three Preferences.

The two Areas addressed by this call are:

• Improvement of knowledge, application and interpretation of EU competition law
• Development of legal linguistic skills of national judges

Within these Areas the five Priorities to be considered are:

• State Aid
• Directive 2014/104 on antitrust damages actions
• Economic principles of competition law
• Interface between European competition law and new developments in e-commerce and/or intellectual property laws
• Development of legal linguistic skills

Preference will be given to projects considering:

• Trainings foreseeing consecutive levels, building up one on another
• Trainings which not simply duplicate/overlap existing/planned training material or existing/future projects of other training providers at national level, but that act in complementarity or that innovate
• Trainings addressing judges from several member states in one training and thus encouraging cross-border networking

For further details see the full text of the Call for proposals.

Call for proposals  

Award criteria guidance 2016

Application form en 

Annexes

Annex 1: Overview of required annexes en

Annex 2: Electronic copy of the complete application (on CD or USB)

Annex 3: Financial plan and Detailed forward budget en 

Annex 4: Financial identification sheet

Annex 5: Legal entity form(for private companies and for public entities + supporting documents)

Annex 6: Declaration of honour (exclusion criteria and financial capacity assessment) en 

Annex 7: Operational capacity assessment (documents according to No.6.3.2 of the Call)

Annex 8: Staff's salary grids/ Unit costs for Staff (documentation: e.g. payslips)

In case of partner(s): Annex 9: Documents of Co-beneficiaries (letter of intent, Annexes 5,6 and 7) and other partners (letter of intent)

Reference documents

Guide for applicants 2016 en 

Model Technical and Financial Report en 

Applicable unit costs for accommodation, meals and refreshments en 

Maximum eligible daily rates for staff costs en 

Legal and Financial reference

The Annual Work Programme 2016  for the Justice Programme and the relevant non-substantial modification  for this programme

Financial Regulation and its rules of application

Useful to know

If you are selected to sign a binding agreement with the EU Commission the herewith attached draft model agreement for mono-beneficiary grants  gives you guidance on the content and format of the agreement which will be concluded along these lines.

Some practical advice for training providers  on how to design your project and training activities you may find in this brochure, developed by a Commission expert group on European judicial training composed of experienced judicial training practitioners from various professions and jurisdictions.

Call for proposals 2015: Training of national judges in EU Competition Law and judicial co-operation

The Call for proposals 2015 is closed (deadline 29/01/2016)

Applicants must indicate clearly which of the priorities mentioned below are addressed by their proposal. Projects should address at least one of these priorities. Projects may address more than one area of intervention, but must clearly indicate which one is the main priority and which one is the ancillary priority.

Proposals not covering any of the below mentioned priorities can still be eligible, but they will be allocated 0 points under the award criteria 1.c). By way of exception to this rule, the Authorising Officer, upon suggestion of the Evaluation Committee, may decide that the topic/activity proposed is to be considered a priority (e.g. peculiar need in a Member State). In this case a maximum of 10 points may be allocated under the award criteria 1.c)

Priorities 2015

Projects should address specific topics described under at least one of the following areas:

• Area 1: Improvement of knowledge, application and interpretation of EU competition law.
  
  Projects should consist of training activities such as conferences, seminars, workshops, colloquia etc., as well as short or long term training courses on EU competition law. Projects under this priority should be rather oriented on advanced trainings for national judges. Basic trainings will only be financed when duly justified (e.g. for national judges in a newly established court).
   
• Area 2: Development of legal linguistic skills of national judges.
  
  The development of linguistic skills can be the main focus of a training program (10 points), or be included as an ancillary activity (5 points) in training programs under Areas 1 and 3.
   
• Area 3: Improving and/or creating cooperation/networks
  
  Improving and/or creating cooperation/networks can be the main focus of a training program (10 points), or be included as an ancillary activity (5 points) in training programs under Areas 1 and 2. Projects will only be considered to fall under Area 3 if their main focus is improving and/or creating cooperation/networks between national judges of more than one EU Member State. However, it is strongly encouraged that training programs under Areas 1 and 2 contain activities fostering the cooperation and creation of networks between judges.
  
  Distribution of financial support between different priorities and allocation of points
  
  When deciding on the allocation of grants, a fair balance between priorities will be sought. The Commission shall therefore finance at least two projects[1] for each of the above 3 areas (as main priority). Priority will be given to projects that do not simply duplicate/overlap existing/future training material or existing/future projects but that act in complementarity or that innovate. Please refer also to the "Table of allocation of points for award criteria 1.c)" in Annex.

Priority will be given to the three above mentioned aspects.

For further details see the full text of the Call for proposals.

Table of allocation of points for award criteria 1c 

Application form en 

Annexes

Annex 1: Overview of required annexes en 

Annex 2: Electronic copy of the complete application (on CD or USB)

Annex 3: Financial plan and Detailed forward budget en 

Annex 4: Financial identification sheet

Annex 5: Legal entity form (for private companies  and for public entities ) + VAT

Annex 6: Declaration of honour en  

Annex 7: Financial capacity assessment en  - en 

Annex 8: Operational capacity assessment

Annex 9: Staff's salary grid

In case of partner(s): Annex 10: Partner declaration form en 

Reference documents

Guide for applicants 2015 en 

Model Technical and Financial Report en 

Applicable unit costs for accommodation, meals and refreshments en 

Maximum eligible daily rates for staff costs en 

Estimation of number of judges trained by our Programme by nationality en 

Legal and Financial reference

The Annual Work Programme 2015 and Annex (section 2.2.2) CIVIL JUSTICE

Financial Regulation and its rules of application

Useful to know

If you successfully submit an application, you will sign a binding contract with the EU Commission. It may be useful to check its content before submitting your application.

Model mono-beneficiary Grant Agreement en