A contest to obtain mini-project grants is opening, March 10, to finish May 17. The biggest grants will make 100,000 Euro each, with 18 months appointed as ceiling project duration, he said.
There are four priorities the contest will proceed from, Mr. Franco went on.
First, to step up civil servants' and youth contribution to protecting political and civil rights.
Second, to enhance public information about human rights protection so as to prevent torture and other illegal activities by law enforcement officers.
Third, to buttress freedom of speech and media independence in Russia.
Last but not least come human rights efforts in the North Caucasus.
True, the rights protection cause leaves much to be desired in Russia-yet it remains a law-dominated country, and it can offer legal ways to combat its ills, stressed the European Commission functionary.
The West also has problems with human rights, he acknowledged. Russia has not monopolized such problems, though they are worse here as the Western public and media are more active.
There is no way for Russia to establish civil society through overseas capital investment, emphasized Mr. Franco. If the rights cause is funded from abroad, it will lose public confidence in its own country, while this confidence is the only support human rights partisans have in this country, he warned.
