EU Law for Funding and Project Design. A Focus on the Europe for Citizens Programme.

Abstract

The thesis investigates the issue of EU funding and identifies the techniques essential for drawing up and implementing relevant projects, able to guarantee an effective spending of EU funds. The first section of the thesis focuses on the allocation and management of Union’s financial resources, as they can be managed in two different ways: through shared or direct management. In the first case, funds are managed jointly by the Commission and Member States with the aim of promoting social, territorial and economic cohesion. In the second case, funds are managed directly by the EU, and they consist of grants in support of projects contributing to the implementation of EU funding programmes. The second section of the thesis tackles the issue of project development, analysing a set of design and management tools, notably Project Cycle Management and the Logical Framework Approach, which help to transform simple ideas into concrete project proposals to be submitted to the Commission. The third section develops a case study on a specific EU funding programme, that is Europe for Citizens 2014-2020, whose aim is to contribute to citizens' understanding of the Union, its history and values and to improve conditions for civic and democratic participation at Union level. In conclusion the aim of the thesis is to make a contribution towards the analysis of EU funding, its management and purposes and towards the definition of a set of useful tools for project design and development.