The CERV Town-Twinning call for 2026 is open until 23 September 2026, and it is one of the few EU grants a single small municipality can realistically lead without a project office behind it.
What it’s about
Town-Twinning is a strand of the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values programme (CERV), managed by the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). It funds citizen exchange events between twinned or twinning towns from different countries, built around themes such as civic participation, local democracy and inclusion. The idea is simple: bring residents of two or more partner towns together for a few days of shared activities and discussion, not to produce a report or a policy paper.
Who can apply
The lead applicant and its partner or partners must be a public body or a non profit organisation with legal personality: a municipality, another level of local authority, a twinning committee, or a non profit representing local authorities. The project must involve municipalities from at least two eligible countries, at least one of which is an EU member state. In practice, most projects pair two or three towns that already have, or are building, a twinning relationship.
Each event needs at least 50 direct participants, of which at least 25 must be invited international participants: people travelling from the partner country to attend. That threshold matters more than any narrative element in the proposal, because it is the number the lump sum calculation is based on.
Budget and deadline
The call has a total budget of 6,000,000 euro. Individual grants are lump sums, not cost based reimbursements, and are expected to range between 8,455 and 50,745 euro per project, scaled to the number of invited international participants. Projects run for six to twelve months. The deadline for submission is 23 September 2026 at 17:00 Brussels time, through the EU Funding and Tenders Portal.
One detail worth flagging before you plan a budget around this grant: there is no prefinancing. The lump sum is paid as a balance after the project ends, which means the municipality or organisation needs to cover the event costs upfront and be reimbursed afterwards.
Why it matters for organisations without a dedicated EU office
Compared with most CERV or Erasmus+ calls, Town-Twinning asks for a genuinely small consortium, two or three partners is enough, a lump sum budget instead of itemised cost reporting, and a project that most towns already know how to run: a multi day citizen exchange. It is one of the more approachable entry points into EU funding for a municipality or a local association that has never applied before, provided the no prefinancing rule is planned for in advance.
How to apply
Register your organisation in the EU Participant Register before starting the application, since validation can take a few days. Then find the call under its reference, CERV-2026-CITIZENS-TOWN-TT, on the Funding and Tenders Portal, and submit Application Form Part A, which covers administrative and budget information, and Part B, the project description, through the electronic submission system before the 23 September deadline. Organisations that are newly established are not required to list previous projects, though partners applying under the non profit representing local authorities category will need a letter of support from the municipality involved.