GLOSSARY
DG – Directorate General of the European Commission. It is a policy department, responsible for a respective policy area.
EACEA – Executive Agency Education, Audiovisual and Culture. It is entrusted with implementation of programmes and activities of the European Commission.
EASME – Executive Agency for Small and Medium Enterprises. It implements programmes and funds projects in the field of innovation, energy efficiency, environment and maritime affairs with a particular focus on SMEs.
EEN – Enterprise Europe Network. It is the world’s largest support network for small and medium sized enterprises with international ambitions.
EU Aid Programme. It is an European programme which implements policy for international cooperation and development.
European Citizen Initiative – register within the EC where citizens can call the Commission to make a legislative proposal. Once an initiative gathers 1 million signatures, the Commission decides on what follow-up action to take.
Europe Direct. It is an European information network designated by the European Commission to target all EU citizens.
European Documentation Centers. They are established into Universities and college institutions of higher learning and make the paper and electronic documentation of the institutions of the Union accessible to the academic world and the general public.
EIB – European Investment Bank.
EURES – European Employment Services. They provide assistance for jobseekers as well as tailored European recruitment projects for individual employers.
European Research Council. Its mission is to encourage the highest quality research in Europe through competitive funding and to support investigator-driven frontier research across all fields of research, on the basis of scientific excellence.
ERDF – European Regional Development Fund. It’s a fund allocated by the European Union to strengthen economic and social cohesion in the European Union by correcting imbalances between its regions.
ESF – European Social Fund. It is the European main instrument for supporting jobs, helping people get better jobs and ensuring fairer job opportunities for all EU citizens.
European Solidarity Corps. It allows young people (between 18 and 30) to carry out volunteer or paid activities in projects that help people and communities across Europe.
European Youth Portal. It is a multilingual website owned by the European Commission and addressing young people in Europe and providing access to youth related European and national information.
European Year of Volunteering. It is designed to encourage regional and local authorities to improve and promote volunteering within member states.
European Voluntary Service. It is partnership between two or more promoting organisations responsible for recruiting volunteers for their project.
NCFF – Natural Capital Financing Facility. It is a financial instrument that combines EIB financing and European Commission funding under the LIFE Programme, the EU’s funding instrument for the environment and climate action.
National Contact Points. They are structures established and financed by the national governments and provide personalized support on the spot and in applicant’s own languages.
PF4EE – Private facility for energy efficiency. It aims to increase the private financing of investments in increased energy efficiency projects.
PIC – Personal Idenitifcation Code. It is attributed to an organization registered in the European Portal.
URBACT. It is an European Territorial Cooperation Programme aimed to foster sustainable integrated urban development in cities across Europe.
DEFINITIONS
Action – a manner or method of performing
Active citizenship – an active performance of people in a community
Audit – an official examination and verification of organization’s or individual accounts or financial situation
Benchmarking tool – a mechanism enabling comparison against other organisations and similar data sets
Best practice project – a project showing results of explicit relevance and impact
Capacity building projects – projects for improving skills and competences of the target groups
Circular economy – a regenerative system, in which the waste and pollution are minimized keeping the products and materials in use
Civil society – a network of groups working in the interest of the citizens but outside the government and for-profit sectors
Civil techs (civil technologies) – tools, platforms and digital devices that aim to reinstate a certain confidence that has been lost over the last decades between the citizens and their representatives, but also between the citizens and the public institutions
Co-creation – management initiative or form of economic strategy, that brings different parties together (for instance, a company and a group of customers), in order to jointly produce a mutually valued outcome
Co-financing ratio – the numeric level, toward which parties collaborate and contribute toward funding
Cohesion policy – the European Union’s strategy to promote and support the “overall harmonious development” of its members and regions
Communication – exchange of information or news
Community programmes – programmes targeted to groups of people
Complementarity – bringing together stakeholders to identify and formulate need or public issue
Corpporate Social Responsibility – form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model
Decision-making process – a process where people discuss specific issues and problems to find common solutions
Democratic scope – level of determination of democratic principles and rules
Demonstration project – practically implementing, testing, assessing and disseminating actions, methods or approaches that are new or unknown in the specific project context, such as geographical, environmental or socio-economic context and that can be implemented elsewhere under similar circumstances;
Eligibility criteria – key standards that are desired to be achieved in a given requirement
European Competence Passport – an electronic portfolio of one’s skills and competences
Expertise – expert skill or knowledge
Evaluation – analysis of a project results based on certain eligible criteria standards
Evidence planning tool – a method for improvement of the work based on assumptions and evidences
Facilitator – a person who helps a group of people understand their common objectives and carries out various options towards a shared solution
Financial capacity – the level of performance of a company or a person to manage financial flows
Financial instruments – methods, tools, programmes, etc. which provide funds for implementation of certain activities
Flagship initiative – key initiative that could support and strengthen innovation and development at local and transnational level and is supported by effective intervention policies and by a strong operational response
Follow-up – an act or action that come up as a result
Governance – a vision of managing public affairs openly in front of the society
Grant – a subsidy for a certain initiative
Impact of Volunteering – the effect that Volunteering can provide
Inclusion – a process of bringing something or someone into a community or society
Inclusive growth – One of the EU policies aimed at promoting employment, social and territorial cohesion
Intelligent growth – One of the EU policies aimed at developing economy based on knowledge and innovation
Integrated projects – implement on a large territorial scale comprising sectoral activities
Integrated urban development – development of the urban environment uniting sectoral domains
Intellectual Property Rights – the exclusive rights given to a person or a company over the use of their creations
Intervention policy – a way of application or interfere of a society
Learning process – process of gaining knowledge and skills
Local knowledge – a sharp understanding of the characteristics (possibilities and weaknesses) of their environment (geography, economy, actors, etc.) and what can be done.
Logic frame (logframe) – analytical approach requiring the development of a logframe matrix or a support matrix for the elaboration of a logical and reasonable scheme to facilitate and center the project formulation.
Mistake library – a library that is usually created to prevent mistakes to happen twice. It is common knowledge that learning is through making mistakes
Mobility – movement of people from one social group, class or level to another
Monitoring – a technique for observing, checking or keeping a continuous record of a process or quantity
Needs-based approach – a method which is applied considering the needs of a group of people
NGO – Non-governmental organisation
Non-state stakeholders – actors from the civil society and the business market
Open government – a concept of a governmental management with the public participation and collaboration.
Operational capacity – the level of performance of a company or a person to implement assigned activities and actions
Outcome assessment tool – a mechanism, a programme to track and measure outcomes
Participatory budget – budget which is constructed with the contribution of the community
Participatory democracy – individual participation of citizens in political decisions and policy making that affect their lives.
PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) process/approach – a four step model for carrying out a change
Pilot project – project implementing a technical tool or method that has not been implemented before or elsewhere, providing potential benefits to the environment
Preparatory project – draft project content which is to be further detailed based on specific terms and conditions
Problem’s tree – a planning tool which aims to analyze the existing problems as part of a formative evaluation of a project
Programme opportunity – opportunity provided by a specific Programme to match the proposer’s themes and project requirements
Project cycle management – practice of initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing the work of team to achieve specific goals and meet specific success criteria at the specified time
Public action – an act or activity, implemented by a group of people or community
Representativeness – the demand can concern a certain category of people or stakeholders who are able to express their needs
Sector skills alliance – designed to tackle skills, aligning vocational education and training systems without labour market needs
Self-assessment tool – an instrument used to evaluate and understand how well an organisation is measuring impact
SME instrument – financing tool targeted to SME to develop their growth potential
Social accountability – the idea of information and expected results from local authorities in the implementation of public policies
Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) – a process in which organizations pursue explicit and social (often environmental) objectives and involve various forms of co-operative, associative and solidarity relations
Social cohesion – set of characteristics that keep a group function as a unit. Social cohesion is one of the EU priorities which aims to achieve balanced social-economic development throughout the EU.
Social effect – a significant positive change that addresses a community or a group of people
Solidarity – an agreement of feeling or action among individuals with a common interest
Specialist tool – instruments or programmes designed for a specific task and for social ventures
Stakeholder – a person interested in something, especially business
Steering committee – a group of experts who provide support, advocacy and consultancy for projects they oversee
Strategic partnership – a cooperation between individuals or group of people that brings positive and long-lasting effects on them
Structured dialogue – dialogue with young people and youth organisations and decision makers which serves as a forum for continuous joint reflection on the priorities, implementation and follow-up of European cooperation in the youth field.
Sustainable growth – a development policy based on greener economy, more efficient in resource management and more competitive businesses
Transnational approach – a method involving partners from several countries, to demonstrate that the project is capable of producing an impact on the EU area as a whole and to elaborate the proposals in a vehicular language
Technical assistance projects – a financial support provided to the applicants in the preparation of their specific projects in the form of grants
Third Sector – a sector that represents neither public nor private sector, e.g. a community sector
Tree of objectives – a tool that is used to analyse and graphically breakdown the objectives into smaller and manageable parts.
Trial and error method – a method of reaching a correct solution or satisfactory results by trying out various means.
Tunnel effect – a person in position staying for a long time without a review on a specific issue
Verification – a process of establishing the truth, accuracy or validity of something
Voluntary Action – an activity based on willingness of someone to undertake a service
Volunteering Programmes – Programmes which allow the involvement of volunteers