EU to support projects on media, politics in Turkey

Turkey-European Union joint "Civil Society Dialogue III Grant Scheme" was introduced in a meeting in Turkey's northwestern city of Bursa on Wednesday. Under the Civil Society Dialogue III Grant Scheme Turkey's European Union Ministry (EU) will provide 9 million euros in grant funds to media and civil society organizations. The ministry will support projects on "Political Criteria" and "Media', as "Political Criteria Grant Scheme" is aimed at introducing EU policies on counter-discrimination, human rights, democracy and the rule of law to the civil society organizations working on those subjects, and providing mutual interaction with their European counterparts, while Media Grant Scheme seeks to strengthen capacity of media actors, as well as establishing sustainable link with European media organs. Speaking at the Bursa meeting, Elif Karakulak, a senior project implementation expert with Turkey's European Union Ministry, said that the scheme would provide 50-150 thousand euro to projects in both political and media programs. Karakulak noted that political donation program owned a budget of 6 million euro and media program a budget of 3 million euro, adding that projects to apply for the donation scheme should have a partner from a European Union country. "Period of the projects are at least 10 months and 15 months at maximum. Associations, non-governmental organization and legal entities can set projects. Participants are allowed to come up with maximum two projects, however, only one of them will be receive donation," Karakulak said. Murat Baser, another project implementation expert, underlined that the project was aimed at maintaining a healthy dialogue between Turkey and EU, adding that media donation program was aimed strengthening networks between the Turkish and European media and non-governmental organizations related to the media.