January Members’ Clipping

It’s January again and we take this opportunity to communicate on some urgent financial matters, consultations, publications, events etc.

Finances: Expenses claims on 2014

1. ENAR has to report to the EC by 31 January 2015. This means that all claims and invoices related to the 2014 work programme must be duly received at the Secretariat by 18 January 2015 at the latest.

If you or one of your colleagues have attended an ENAR event in 2014, you must return to the Secretariat all original travel tickets and a duly completed expense claim form per meeting. Requests for reimbursement after this deadline will not be accepted.

2. The National Platforms no longer need to send us receipts but need to prove that they fulfilled the tasks required under the NP contract.
A completed report (questionnaire see message sent by Juliana dated 11 December 2014) and required annexes must sent to Juliana by 18 January 2015. Kindly note that the European Commission as a funder has during 5 years the right to come back to the NPs to ask for further details and proofs.

3. For any contract your organisation signed last year with the Secretariat, an invoice needs to be provided dated on 2014. E.g. shadow reports, NP agreements, etc. If not sent yet, please also do so by 18 January 2015.

Finances: Reimbursement by ENAR

The European Commission informed us that if ENAR is granted a DG Justice grant on 2015, no contract will be signed before the end of March 2015.

This means in practice that:
1. the EC may not transfer any funds before May 2015
2. between now and then ENAR has major cash flow problems but must work on its 2015 work programme
3. the ENAR Board together with the Secretariat is taking the necessary steps to minimalize the impact on the organization and the members (minimal expenses, use of credit line, agreement on earlier transfer of co-funding, continued pro-active short, mid and long term fundraising, etc.)
4. the ENAR Board decided that all payments to the member organisations will be delayed and that a priority for reimbursement will be given to the individual contractors and organisations in peril
5. the Secretariat will start to sign agreements on 2015 (for ex. for the next Shadow reports, national activities, etc) but each time with a clause that in case the EC decides to not fund ENAR or that part of the work programme that relates to these specific activities, these agreements will be cancelled without payment.
6. all members will be informed of the EC funding decision upon reception of their notification.

For any further information on finances, please do not hesitate to contact Myriam De Feyter (info@enar-eu.org).

Membership 2015

The membership fee is due before 15 March 2015. A debit note will be sent to you shortly. The ENAR membership will provide your organisation a continued access to our membership package.

For information on membership, networking and the national platforms, please contact Juliana Wahlgren at Juliana@enar-eu.org.

National Platform Coordination

Since the restructuring of the network, ENAR has been able to better assess its relation with all internal partners, not only the member organisations but also the National Platforms and their Coordinators. Thanks to the direct and open contact between the Secretariat and its members, NP Coordinators can currently better focus on advocacy, campaigns and communications activities which were planned according to ENAR’s work plan.

In 2015, a new model of NPCs will be tested. ENAR wants to be more present at national and local levels and would also like to establish dialogue and influence the political agenda. ENAR will launch a call for projects in each country. The goal is to encourage the implementation of national initiatives addressing ENAR’s main strategies: Afrophobia, Anti-Gypsyism, Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, Community mobilisation, Data Collection, Discrimination in employment, Racist crime or Roma.

Member organisations will be invited to submit activities as Coordinators in one of these specific topics. Actions can be campaigning, advocacy or networking-oriented. Project will be assessed on the basis of their relevance and feasibility. Each country will have a specific focus. See the content of the Board decision in that regard.

The Call for projects will be launched oin the coming weeks.

For more information, please contact Juliana Wahlgren (juliana@enar-eu.org)

Members’ Area – WORK TOGETHER and start by updating of your organisation profile

Recently we launched a Members’ Area on ENAR’s new website. This new tool informs you about ENAR’s work and network/governance issues. It also provides an opportunity to share your activities and projects.

Use this tool and start by filling in your member profile and adding your upcoming activities, events, etc. Your personal login information and a toolkit were shared by email on 16 October 2014. If you did not receive it, please contact Georgina at georgina@enar-eu.org. She will be more than happy to guide you through the process.

Launch of the PAD book

On 21 January ENAR will launch a new book called “Invisible Visible Minority: Confronting Afrophobia and Advancing Equality for People of African Descent and Black Europeans in Europe”. The publication contributes to filling the gaps in literature on the situation of people of African descent in Europe and Black Europeans (PAD/BE). This collection of papers – a mix of academic writing, policy related issues, and accounts of practical experiences – is a unique contribution to remedy this lack of knowledge. It aims to raise awareness of Europe’s Black population, their histories and contributions, and prescriptions to long-standing racial issues.

ENAR would like to launch this publication at the national level and is looking for member organisations who would be interested to launch the book in their countries in the coming months.

If you would be interested to support us, please contact Julie Pascoët (Julie@enar-eu.org) or Ojeaku Nwabuzo (Ojeaku@enar-eu.org).

Consultation – National Roma Integration Strategies (NRIS)

The European Commission will report on progress made in the implementation of the National Roma Integration Strategies (NRIS) since 2012 and has explicitly asked ENAR to support them to collect information from civil society organisations. In order to have the best overview of the situation on the ground and to better inform EU debates and policies, we kindly ask you to fill in this questionnaire and to provide your feedback in the fields of anti-discrimination and Roma participation. The deadline for filling in this questionnaire is Monday 26 January. We especially welcome information from Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Spain as these countries were not covered by the latest civil society monitoring.

ENAR will compile your answers in one report, which will be sent to the European Commission to feed into their assessment report, which is to be published during 2015. Make your voice heard at EU level to improve policies in your country!

For further information, please contact Julie Pascoët (Julie@enar-eu.org)