AEBR SEMINAR, November 19th, CoR
The participation of the citizens from border regions in the Operational Programmes
Roundtable: “The participation of the civil society of border regions”
EYCA: Facts and Figures
The European Year of Citizens Alliance (EYCA) is an open network of European and national civil society
organisations and networks willing to promote active citizenship as a core element of the European project in
the context of the European Year of Citizens 2013. The principles on which the EYCA was established can be
found in its Manifesto adopted in spring 2012.
The EYCA has gathered 62 European members representing more than 4500 individual organisations in 50
European countries and working in different areas such as education, culture, health or youth, to name but a
few. It has also been active in the EU Member States thanks to 19 National Alliances and 3 National Alliance
initiatives directly involving more than 400 national and local civil society organisations and notably large
umbrella organisations. The EYCA also had contact organisations in 6 other European countries.
In spite of the lowest budget ever allocated to a European Year, the EYCA obtained a limited financial support
from the European Commission for its activities at the European level whilst at the national level, EYC
Alliances almost exclusively functioned on the voluntary participation of their constituencies.
EYCA’s views on the participation of civil society in Europe democratic life
GENERALLY
Citizens’ participation and civil dialogue was high on the EYCA agenda and it was notably the focus of one of
the three working groups that met throughout the Year to draft policy recommendations.
Indeed, active citizenship means primarily active involvement and participation of citizens in the life of their
communities, and thus in democracy, both in terms of activity and decision-making. We consider that the
concept of citizenship encompasses a two-way relationship between a community and its members.
The recommendations which stemmed from the working groups go in the direction to improve participation at
the local, national and European levels and by participation we mean involving citizens’ in decision-making.
An example of recommendations:
[Reinforcing Participative Democracy in Europe]
EU institutions and Member States should ensure that civil society organisations are involved
on an equal footing with other stakeholders at all levels of decision-making.
Member States should ensure that, at the very least, consultative bodies are created at the local level
to elaborate recommendations on environmental, economic and social development involving a wide
range of social partners with the aim of promoting social dialogue and consensus on democratic
governance.
WHAT ABOUT BORDER REGIONS?
Diogo Pinto – EYCA – AEBR conference – 19 November 2013
Two general remarks to start with:
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The question of the border (whether it is physical of intellectual) is strongly present in a project such as
EYCA, because such a project is precisely about overcoming borders (going beyond our country, our
field of interest, etc.). Establishing transversal, multilevel and transnational working groups was way to
do it concretely (and it proved to be quite successful)
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In this respect and as we are a European-wide coalition the question of the border, relating to the EU,
and notably the question of the link between center and periphery, is something we’ve worked on. For
instance two of the main events organised or co-organised by EYCA during the Year have been/ will
be in Zagreb and Vilnius. Nor Zagreb nor Vilnius are border cities but from Brussels they are at the
periphery of the EU and from our colleagues from National alliances it is, quite often, the first time
they’d visit these cities/countries
Now getting to border regions more specifically:
Border regions were not dealt separately in EYCA’s reflection because we tried to develop a transversal
reflection (they are therefore included in a phrasing such as “all levels of participation”).
This being said, there are specificities of border regions which were present during the discussions and which
are also highlighted in the activities implemented.
Of course, cross-border participation is highly important in establishing a European public sphere since they
are the closest level to make the European reality very concrete to citizens. In certain cases the cooperation is
very good, or say “easy”, and we can see cultural, environmental projects (eg: France-Germany), in other
there is a strong challenge of bringing people together with, for instance, more specific attention paid to History
and memory (eg: Croatia – Slovenia).
The question of participation representation of citizens of border regions at the national and European levels is
also a key issue. EYCA particularly focused its work on the citizens who are/feel more far from the EU, in that
respect specific attention needs to be given to citizens living in certain border regions who can feel excluded to
the European decisions.
Some case studies from EYCA (and its members) of cross-border events in the frame of the EYC 2013
The numerous activities and projects emanating from civil society gives a good idea of both the role of civil
society in border regions and the existing challenges in such areas. We’ve gathered some examples of events
found in our network according to different categories:
1) Regional Cross-border events
Unfortunately, due to the lack of funds available at the national level, it was not possible to organise “EYCA”
events in most cases. The Luxembourg Alliance wanted to organise an event on border regions with
neighbouring countries but given the lack of support this was not possible.
Other examples:
TAP (Foundation for Civil Society – Istria)
Diogo Pinto – EYCA – AEBR conference – 19 November 2013
The aim of this project (running from October 2013 to September 2014) is the promotion of active citizenship
and local participation between young people, who should act as future, but also as current leaders of the
community. Citizenship education is an integral part of combating the negative perception of politics and at the
same time preparation for active involvement in the EU (and national) parliamentarian elections.
Two sides of citizenship education must be taken into consideration: the formal and legalistic framework of
rights and duties in representative democracy and the empowering of individuals to act, changing social
structures and processes. The last will be approached by the proposed project through exchange of different
participatory art methods of the Theatre of the oppressed between six partner organizations from 3 different
countries. It will involve 30 young participants, 10 from each country. They will for 3 days learn about the
democratic process in the region of Veneto, Italy, than for 6 days work on their active participation skills in
Slovenia, Koper and finally try the democratic process through a 9 days practical workshop in Pula, Croatia.
During the project 3 short movies with the project activities and 3 plays (one per country) will be produced and
published.
Information: http://www.civilnodrustvo-istra.hr/en/international-cooperation/current-projects.html
Danube Civil Society Forum in the EU Strategy for the Danube Region
The Danube Civil Society Forum (DCSF) is the platform for civil society dialogue and networking in the
Danube basin under the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR). It functions as the interface for
structured consultations between civil society and public and private authorities on the regional, national and
EU level as well as to international and intergovernmental organisations active in the region.
The Danube Civil Society Forum is dedicated to support civil society organisations in the Danube basin. It
aims to promote and enhance civil society participation and networking in the framework of the European
Union Strategy for the Danube Region.
The founding General Assembly of the Danube Civil Society Forum was held 30 June - 1 July 2011 in
Eisenstadt, following the Budapest EU Summit on the Danube Strategy.
The DCSF focuses its networking and project related action on its Working Groups. Four working groups have
been formed so far along the four pillars of the EUSDR. This is to ensure, that the creativity and action build up
in the working groups is compatible with the overall Danube Strategy. These 4 pillars of the strategy and the
Working Groups are:
WG 1: Connecting the Danube Region
WG 2: Protecting the environment in the Danube Region
WG 3: Building Prosperity in the Danube Region
WG 4: Strengthening the Danube Region
Information : http://www.danubestrategy.eu/danube-civil-society-forum/
CEV conference (Sarajevo 2013)
This Year’s Annual conference of the European Volunteer Centre (CEV) was dedicated to “Cross–Border
Volunteering In the European Year of Citizens – What is it for?”. Several projects were presented what
underlines the importance & impact of volunteering in cross-border context among which:
- Axega (Spain / Portugal) which focused on sharing knowledge & training civil protection volunteers
for cross-border emergencies.
Diogo Pinto – EYCA – AEBR conference – 19 November 2013
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More information: www.axega112.org
Together is Better (Danube – Kris – Mures – Tisza euroregion (Hungary / Serbia) which focused on
corporate volunteering with the aim to improve Vojvodinian-Hungarian connections.
50 Years of Franco-German Youth Office (OFAJ / DFJW) with exchange projects for young people
in France/ Germany and a partner country in SEE. The idea was to start from a transnational
successful cooperation project (OFAJ) involving youngsters to raise their awareness on other part of
Europe (here SEE) whilst supporting and strengthing civil society in SEE.
More information: http://www.cev.be/sarajevo-2013/
European Caravan Anti Mafia (ARCI)
The International Caravan « anti-mafia » will celebrate its 20th year of existence in 2014. Started in Palermo in
1994 (after two judges were killed), it goes towards several European countries (France, Serbia, etc.) with the
aim to share the Italian experience on how to confiscate the goods of the mafias and to deliver trainings on
legality.
More information : http://europeancaravanforlegality.eu/the-project/
2) Transnational events
The question of a European public sphere which was mentioned early can be also achieved through
transnational events, events taking place simultaneously in different countries / cities under the same
framework.
Such events are particularly interesting and we’d like to present some of them:
CEECN – Citizen Participation Week (23-29 September)
During the Citizens Participation Week, local communities and civil organisations come together with social
improvement and other initiatives in order to express their views on a community and a world which is ruled
not only by money and power. They highlight the importance of dialogue and collaboration and try to create
publicity for those civil initiatives which play a key role in the development of local societies.
Concrete activities are decided by the national organising committees and the organisations joining the
campaign. The national committees may submit a call in their own countries in which they invite the citizens,
organisations and institutions of that member country to join the events.
The Citizens Participation Week is the first event to have NGOs from 18(+) different countries standing up
collectively for a cause that was forbidden to be talked about in most of these countries for decades.
It is organised by Central and Eastern European Citizens Network (CEECN) was created to provide
opportunities for grassroots citizens’ initiatives from CEE region to learn, exchange experiences and ideas as
well as enhance their organisational growth through establishing and managing a partner relationship among
themselves.
Information: www.ceecn.net
Diogo Pinto – EYCA – AEBR conference – 19 November 2013
Europe Day
Europe Day / Europe Week intends to be an example of transnational celebration that reinforces the feeling of
belonging to a common European project. However there is little information on all the events organised
simultaneously. The European Movement maps all the events organised by its members for Europe Day and
this year EYCA compiled under “Europe Day” information on over 200 events throughout Europe organised for
Europe Day / Europe Week in its agenda with specific communication on this (EU Day Operation).
European Alternatives - Transeuropa festival (4-27 October)
It is a transnational festival of culture, arts and politics, taking place in 13 cities all over Europe. It is not 13
different festivals happening at the same time, but one festival taking place throughout the continent. This
year’s edition took place in Paris, London, Prague, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Lublin, Warsaw, Cluj-Napoca,
Belgrade, Sofia, Bratislava, Berlin and Bologna.
More information: www.transeuropafestival.eu
3) Periphery regions
In certain countries, there is a huge challenge to involve citizens from periphery regions in EU related topics.
This is less linked to the fact that these regions are border ones than to the fact that they are geographically
far from the European continent.
In France several associations educating to European citizenship (eg: European Youth Parliament – France,
CIDEM: both involved in EYCA-France) put specific efforts in involving youngsters from Outre-Mer (La
Réunion, Guadeloupe) in their activities.
Project « Laboratories of European democracy » (ARCI, Italy)
The project aims to establish a laboratory of direct participation in the European institutions debate, after the
election of the new European Parliament in 2014. This is an urgent need: anti-European feeling is spreading,
especially in the EU countries more affected by the crisis. European institutions and civil society organizations
committed themselves to dialogue in several occasions. Despite these attempts, social fear and mistrust in
democracy brings many citizens to join populists and regressive anti-European movements.
An European Forum will be organized bringing together community leaders, citizens, representatives of social
organizations from all over Europe to debate about values and politics to rebuild a pro-European popular
feeling, as well as about participation mechanisms to establish stronger relations between citizens and the
European institutions. The European Forum in Italy will also host a dialogue with representatives of the
European institutions, during the Italian Presidency of EU.
After the recent events in Lampedusa, organisers decided that this European Forum would be organised in
Lampedusa to raise awareness on European migration policy and its concrete impact for citizens (including
third countries citizens). This is an example of responsiveness of civil society to a political issue including
border regions’ specific challenges.
Diogo Pinto – EYCA – AEBR conference – 19 November 2013