FAQ trilateral programmes

The FGYO can fund travel expenses, costs for accommodation and meals, program costs and language animation activities. For the exact amounts of funding, please consult our guidelines (in French and German only).

The FGYO also supports organizations applying for assistance in the planning and/or implementation of an exchange by an intercultural consultant.

For preparatory meetings, only the travel and subsistence expenses are subsidized. Additional funding can only be requested for an interpreter to be present. For the exact amounts of funding, please consult our guidelines.

Only subsidies for travel costs of the German and French participants can be provided. For projects with countries from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and South-Eastern Europe (SEE), subsistence expenses can be subsidized for all nationalities. Projects with SEE and countries of the Mediterranean rim can receive priority grants for other costs (cf. Annex 4 of the guidelines). 

Projects subsidized by the special funds should be exempted from visa fees. Service providers may only charge processing fees. 

Visa fees incurred may be regarded as expenditure in the context of travel or program costs provided that the expenditure for these items does not exceed the total grant from the FGYO (cf. Annex 4 of the guidelines).

A maximum of 60 people including accompanying staff can be subsidized.

The ratio is 1 supervisor to 5 participants. 

Central and Eastern European countries (CEE): Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Ukraine, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia.

South-Eastern European countries (SEE): Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo*, Montenegro, Serbia.

Eastern Partnership (funding from the Special Fund): Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Russia and the Ukraine.

Countries of the Mediterranean Rim/Maghreb: Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestinian Territories, Tunisia and Turkey.

European countries in a crisis: Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal and others, depending on the current situation. The choice of country must be based on the selected topic.

*This designation is without prejudice to positions on status and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.

Our pedagogical staff can assist you with your search. With our search engine, you will also find a list of possible partner organizations.

The special funds are funded by the German Foreign Office (Auswärtiges Amt) and the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (ministère de l’Europe et des Affaires étrangères) and are available for projects with Central and Eastern European countries (CEE) and with South-Eastern European countries (SEE). Applications can be submitted from September until November via an online form (please see the details on the respective websites). Topics should have a strong focus on foreign policy in order to be considered.

Projects with countries of the Eastern Partnership or with countries of the Transformation partnership can also apply. The application methods differ from those for CEE and SEE, please refer to the respective websites for details. 

The special funds represent an additional opportunity for funding and guarantee funding at the full rates. Furthermore, they offer a special visibility and are characterized by their innovative nature. If a project is not selected to immediately go forward, it will be put on a waiting list and can apply for the classic funding at the respective department at the same time. The documents must be re-submitted by the organization to the responsible department.

The receiving organization submits the application. For meetings in Germany, the German organization submits the application, for meetings in France, the French organization. The organization from the third country may not submit an application, the partners from Germany and France have to agree which one submits it.

If the association depends on one of the central offices of the FGYO, the documents must be submitted via this central office.

Application for FGYO-funding:

• completed, stamped and signed application form,
• provisional program,
• concept for the meetings (see the guide on page 3 of the application form)
• bank details (for the French version).

CEE and SEE Special Funds: The application is made via an online form where the preliminary program and concept may be attached.

Eastern Partnership Special Fund: See program page.

• completed, stamped and signed form,
• program,
• pedagogical report (see guidelines on page 3 of the form),
• if necessary report on language animation activities,
• signed and stamped lists of participants,
• signed and stamped list of receipts,
• information about public relations/marketing (flyer, internet, blog, films, photos, radio).

At the latest 2 months after the end of the project (date of postmark). 

No, the phases can take place over a period of 1-3 years. The decision is entirely up to the partners and depends on their availability. 

The FGYO funds meetings lasting from 4-21 days. The arrival and departure days are counted together as one day.

The number of participants from all three countries should be balanced in order to allow the best possible group dynamics. Too uneven a ratio of participants can result in the young people spending the time on the project with each other and not mixing, which means that in the end, no real trilateral exchange takes place. As a rule of thumb, a group from one country should not have more than 1/3 more participants than the groups from the other countries (e.g. 12 German participants, 16 French participants, 12 participants from the third country). 

The intercultural learning effect is much stronger and the learning experience is much greater if the young people participate in all phases. They should learn what it means to be a guest in a country and to take over the task of hosting at home. In addition, the exchange with three countries allows the reflection of one’s own experiences in direct comparison with the two other countries. In this way, the young people have the opportunity to learn about different viewpoints and gain solid experiences. In short, the continuous participation of young people should a priority. 

Publish your programmme on our site to find participants

We ask all organizers of projects supported and funded by the FGYO to consider the security alerts from the German Foreign Office (Auswärtiges Amt), the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (ministère de l’Europe et des Affaires étrangères) and the Foreign Ministry of the third country and to follow these recommendations. 

In the event of a short-term cancellation of a project for security reasons, the FGYO will not pay for the entire cancellation costs. However, payments already made will not be reclaimed. However, in such cases, the FGYO reserves the right to demand proof of costs incurred for cancellations, cancellation fees, etc. It may also request a refund of the difference between payments already made and these costs. 

Please note that for some trips, visas are required. Please consult the embassies and visa offices of the respective countries or their websites to find out what documents are needed. If an appointment has to be arranged for this, it can be requested without having all the necessary documents, usually up to three months prior to the start of the journey. You then need to present all valid documents at the time of the appointment. Please also remember that the processing of the application by the visa office usually takes about two weeks.