✅ Consolidated Checklist

Purpose: To ensure that the EU’s executive agencies translate policy into safe, effective, and learning-oriented implementation that strengthens independent media, research, and information-integrity ecosystems.

Apply this checklist when designing calls, assessing proposals, or managing projects under Creative Europe, Horizon Europe, and other agency-managed programmes.

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🛡️ 1. Do No Harm

Area	Key Questions	Action Points
Safety & Security	Are digital, legal, and psycho-social safety costs eligible?	Make safety a standard cost category across all calls. Pre-approve expenses for digital security, legal defence, and staff well-being.
Visibility & Confidentiality	Could publication of beneficiary data or logos endanger grantees?	Introduce risk-review gates before publishing results. Apply visibility-waiver templates consistently.
Reporting & Data	Do reporting or audit requirements expose sensitive data?	Allow anonymised or redacted reporting. Collect only essential data and store securely.
Programme Design	Are funding conditions creating donor dependency or administrative overload?	Include proportionate requirements and simplify documentation for small or first-time grantees.

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💶 2. Increase Funding

Dimension	Minimum Safeguard	Enhanced Practice
Predictability	Multi-year frameworks or staged disbursements to smooth cash flow.	Introduce rolling or bridge-funding windows to prevent project gaps.
Accessibility	Simplified procedures for small or local actors.	Create a “first-time grantee track” with mentoring and proportionate compliance checks.
Flexibility	Allow justified budget reallocations within cost categories.	Approve emergency reallocations for safety or legal defence without prior amendment.

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🧩 3. Whole-of-System Perspective

Ecosystem Element	Key Questions	Action Points
Complementarity	Does the project align with EU and Member-State initiatives?	Add ecosystem impact as an evaluation criterion. Reward proposals that fill gaps rather than duplicate others.
Partnerships	Do calls encourage multi-actor consortia?	Require international-regional-local partnerships and fund coordination time as a deliverable.
Sustainability	Are projects focused on short-term outputs?	Score higher for projects that include viability plans and knowledge transfer mechanisms.

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🌍 4. Local Leadership & Ownership

Aspect	Questions	Action Points
Participation	Are smaller or regional actors meaningfully included?	Adjust eligibility rules and scoring to favour inclusive consortia and local leads.
Capacity-building	Are partners supported to meet EU standards?	Budget for compliance mentoring and administrative training within projects.
Representation	Do selection panels reflect geographical and thematic diversity?	Involve experts from partner regions and independent media in evaluation panels.

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🤝 5. Coordination

Area	Key Questions	Action Points
Internal Alignment	Are templates and indicators harmonised with DGs and Delegations?	Use shared reporting and MEL templates across Creative Europe, Horizon Europe, and external instruments.
Knowledge Exchange	Is institutional learning captured and shared?	Establish an internal knowledge hub across agencies to store anonymised evaluations and best practice.
Timing	Are call calendars coordinated?	Align timelines with DG CONNECT, DG JUST, and EEAS to support coherent pipelines.

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📚 6. Research & Learning

Topic	Questions	Action Points
Evidence	Is programme learning feeding back into new calls?	Conduct meta-evaluations across portfolios to identify systemic trends.
Dissemination	Are results shared beyond grantees?	Require each project to include a learning and dissemination plan.
Cross-Sector Learning	Are links made between media, digital governance, and research communities?	Fund cross-disciplinary clusters under Horizon Europe and Creative Europe to connect journalism, technology, and democracy research.

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🎙 Field Voices from Consultations

“Simpler and lighter compliance paths are essential to bring new actors in. Otherwise, only the same EU-based organisations will ever qualify.” — OECD Media Toolkit Interview, 2025

“Donors have varying reporting requirements… A unified package of basic documents would make a real difference.” — GFMD, Transforming Media Development Report (2023)

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🔍 In Brief

EACEA and REA play a pivotal role in translating Europe’s democratic ambitions into practice. By embedding safety, flexibility, and learning into their programme management, they can help ensure that EU-funded media and information-integrity initiatives strengthen—not strain—the partners who deliver them.