Travel expenses

DG Trade makes available a limited budget to cover travel expenses for participants in the Civil Society Dialogue (CSD) meetings.

Payment of travel arrangements shall be limited to economy class flights or second class train journeys, and this only for the main part of the journey - the coverage does not include taxi, subsistence or accommodation costs. The Commission provides for a prior purchase of the tickets.

Payments are limited to one person per organisation, and ten persons per meeting, on a first-come first-served basis.


Eligibility criteria

Participants:
 

• must not be based in Brussels; 
• must not be members of European institutions or other EU bodies; 
• must be representatives of civil society organisations registered in the database of DG Trade, or of their affiliated organisation(s) in developing countries; 
• should provide additional input to the substance dealt with in the CSD meetings, and contribute to a more balanced overall representation of EU's civil society.

Procedure:

• Meetings for which travel expenses arrangements can be requested are identified as such on the DG Trade website.
• Candidates should indicate their request when registering for a meeting. Such applications shall be accepted until up to 14 working days before the relevant meeting (or as specified in the meeting invitation). DG Trade will accept or reject the bid within 10 working days of receipt of such a request. 
• The participants shall be able to follow the status of their request by accessing their file on the CSD website.
• Participants who have been granted coverage of their travel expenses shall have to sign an attendance sheet, available at the meeting venue. No change of person can be made, once approval has been granted.
• Once the coverage of travel expenses has been granted, absences to the meeting must be duly justified. The Commission is entitled to refuse future travel payments to missing funded participants.