2013 should become the European Year of Citizens. The commission proposal sets a strong focus on individual rights like free movement. Civil Society Organisations are working together to convince all stakeholders to widen the scope of the European Year and to increase the budget of actual 1 Mio Euro.

For a better overview EUNET prepared a brief presentation on the state of play.

European Year of Citizens 2013 - state of play

The European Commission made a proposal for a new Europe for Citizens programme for the year 2014 and beyond.

EUNET made a brief summary on the main topics of the new programme. Check out the short presentation to see what's coming.

Europe for Citizens programme 2014 to 2020 - a short summary

2013 will be the European Year of Citizens. EUNET, together with other European networks and civil society organizations, welcomes Commission's proposal to put Union citizenship at the heart of the political agenda.

Nevertheless, we are deeply concerned that, in the framework of the European Year of Citizens 2013, the EU citizenship tends to be confined to an individual rights-based approach and does not tackle the Europeans' sense of belonging to a common European Union.

EUNET had joined an alliance of civil society organisations to explicitly broaden the scope of the EY2013 to all aspects of citizenship and raise its budget.

The European Year of Citizens Alliance website is now online.

Every year the European Economic and Social Committee Video Challenge organises a video challenge to boost video creativity and the use of social networking among young people across the European Union.

The subject is “Be creative and show us what Europe means to you!”. The 2012 edition refers to the "European year 2012 for Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations" and encourages generations to get together to submit projects depicting European intergenerational viewpoints.

The challenge is open to European citizens aged 18 to 30 who are to produce a video that shows their perceptions of an intergenerational Europe.

Participation is free and video URLs can be submitted on the dedicated website between 1 January and 15 February 2012. The prizes (from 2000 to 5000 Euros) will be awarded at a ceremony held in Brussels on 15 March 2012.

website

To mark the start of the 2012 European Year of Active Ageing and Solidarity of Generations, the European Commission presented a new Eurobarometer survey showing that 71% of Europeans are aware that Europe's population is getting older, but only 42% are concerned about this development.

This is in stark contrast with the perceptions of policy makers, who regard demographic ageing as a major challenge. For most citizens, people aged 55 years and older play a major role in key areas of society. Over 60% believe that we should be allowed to continue working after retirement age and one third says that they would like to work longer themselves. Surprisingly, people closer to retirement are more likely to share this view than the younger generation.

Special Eurobarometer 378: Active Ageing

Key results of the active ageing Eurobarometer survey

European Commission just published a comprehensive and user-friendly guide to the European Citizens' Initiative. The guide will soon be available in all the official EU languages.

Some of the links of this publication will be available from 26 January 2012 when the new European Commission's website for the European Citizens' Initiative will be launched.

Guide to the European Citizens' Initiative  

EUNET is co-chairing a working group established by roughly 70 Civil Society Organisations to analyse and accompany the process which will lead to new Financial Regulations affecting all parts of the EU budget.

The summary only focuses on the topics which are relevant for NGOs / grants.

The presentation has the same content as the summary, but is less detailed and was given by EUNET on the occasion of the structured dialogue meeting of DG COMM on December 6th 2011.

Caution: All topics are still subject to change!

On 11 August 2011, the European Commission proposed to designate 2013 as the "European Year of Citizens" to mark the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the European Union Citizenship under the Maastricht Treaty in 1993.

EUNET, together with other European networks and civil society organizations, welcomes Commission's proposal to put Union citizenship at the heart of the political agenda. For a long time, we have been advocating for citizenship to become a transversal dimension of European policies and a key priority in all areas of Union action. This proposal is an important step forward in the building of a citizen-friendly European Union that would no longer be reduced to merely economic preoccupations.

Nevertheless, we are deeply concerned that, in the framework of the European Year of Citizens 2013, the EU citizenship tends to be confined to an individual rights-based approach and does not tackle the Europeans' sense of belonging to a common European Union.

EUNET had joined an alliance of civil society organisations to explicitly broaden the scope of the EY2013 to all aspects of citizenship and raise its budget. A first meeting of the alliance will take place on January 27th 2012.

Read the open letter to the MEPs

Our member SOS Malta is looking for partners to initiate a Grundtvig learning partnership on carers and volunteers.

Please follow this link for a detailed project description.

Some nice updates and games in the kids corner and teachers corner.

Kids and Teacher corner

Gundtvig learning partnership REPERES: Connecting the history of Europe with the history of Europeans.

All learning modules are now also available in English!

website

See our Infomail 13-2011 for a brief overview on EUNETs contribution for the European Year for Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations 2012.

Infomail 13-2011

Youth in action published a new programme guide for 2012.

Programme guide

Our member BBAG will receive funding from the Europe for Citizens programme "network for twinned towns" for their project "Klimaschutz und Mobilität"