What happens next?
Upon receipt of your application, the assigned trade expert will ensure that your Application falls within the mandate of the PMU and reaches acceptable quality standards. He may come back to you for further clarification or with ideas for your project.
When the PMU is satisfied that a request is acceptable and is eligible for assistance, it will immediately submit them to the Validation Committee.
In its evaluation of the requests received, the PMU will be guided by objective and transparent criteria. The PMU will be guided in this regard by a standard technical evaluation grid of Requests for Assistance, itself determined according to the mandated objectives and priorities of the TradeCom Programme and the eligibility criteria below. Internal evaluation will take place for more than one request at the same time, once a month, in order to take account of geographical and institutional equity.
The PMU will assess the eligibility and quality of requests.
In order to ensure transparency, the PMU’s assessments will be communicated, together with eligible requests, to the Validation Committee.
A formal notification of the results is sent to all applicants.
The PMU for the TradeCom Facility, in collaboration with the interested stakeholders in the beneficiary country (ies) and region(s), may then initiate implementation.
Implementation must be in full compliance with EU procurement rules. The PMU will undertake all contractual arrangements for the provision of services in close contact with beneficiaries.
The time between the receipt of the request and the actual launching of the project on the ground depends on a number of factors such as the amount of information provided/needed, consultation with other donors and programmes and so on. In general, if all information is readily available, for restricted tender projects, it takes about two and a half months after receipt of an eligible request to launch a project. In some cases, unsuccessful tenders have to be re-launched, with resulting delays.