We Are Europe – Empowering European Civil Society (WAE)

The aim of the project is to allow civil society organisations (CSOs) to become actors in the “Future of Europe debate” in the 2018-2019 period. The project will equip CSOs with the necessary tools to participate in bottom-up initiatives regarding the debate on the future of Europe at all levels. Particular focus will be on CSOs where nationalism and populism are on the rise and civil society engagement in Europe is under pressure, as well as on sectorial CSOs striving to use the European sphere as a space for their engagement. The project will also develop citizens’ understanding of the EU policy-making process and promote opportunities for societal and intercultural engagement.

The project will consist of three types of offline activities taking place across Europe:

• 2 European Academies, in Brussels (BE)
• 2 European Civil-Society Meet-Ups, in Vienna (AT) and Vilnius (LT)
• 4 Citizens’ Agorae, in Budapest (HU), Barcelona (ES), Strasbourg (FR) and Sofia (BG)

Each offline event will be preceded by an online open-ended survey phase that will allow participants to shape the agenda of the event according to their needs and expectations. The online platform “We are Europe” will allow CSOs to exchange best practices, pool their capabilities into cross-border partnerships and transform national activities into genuine European initiatives.

This project is implemented in partnership with the following organisations:

• Union of European Federalists (UEF)
• The Spinelli Group
• Movimento Federalista Europeo (MFE)
• Union des Fédéralistes Européens – France
• Union of European Federalists Bulgaria
• Union of European Federalists in Lithuania
• Union of Europeanists and Federalists of Spain
• Europäische Föderalistische Bewegung Österreich (EFB)

ECAS will actively contribute to the formulation of the curricula of the two editions of the European Academy in two different fields:

• Association management, financial management and growth
• Citizens’ engagement and e- participation

ECAS’s role in the project will also entail the following activities:

• Provide trainers to animate the European Academy;
• Contribute to the recruitment effort of the “We are Europe” platform by means of its network of civil-society organisations, especially in countries with hostile environments for NGOs and shrinking civic space;
• Contribute to the general effort of promotion and diffusion of the project’s activities and outcomes through its own communication channels.