“Civic Participation in Political Life, European Elections” Debate, Tallinn

“How to Make MEPs Talk to Citizens?”

On April 15, 2014 JoiEU partner Open Estonia Foundation organized this month’s debate on civic participation in political life and the European elections.

Watch the Debate ReLive here:

 

 What’s in it for me?

In a modern democracy, voting is only one of the many ways to participate in politics – it is equally important that citizens have a say in public decisions on a daily basis. Whereas the work
of national parliaments tends to be under our close scrutiny, we sometimes lose sight of
Members of the European Parliament once they’ve taken their cosy seats in Brussels and
Strasbourg. What could be done to make sure this doesn’t happen after the elections this May?
The debate on April 15 looked into the theory and practice of the European
Parliament’s work, presented cases and examples from different European countries and sought to
answer

The “Civil Society and the Non- Europe” Debate: What Breaks Europe?

On March 11  JoiEU partner Platforma de ONG de Accion Social, Spain carried out this month’s debate: “Civil Society and the Non- Europe Debate”.

The participant from Spain and the project partner states addressed the following questions :

• What are the forces trying to break Europe apart?
• How does that affect European citizens?
• What do Civil Society organizations do to address these threats?

Presentations form the debate:

The Zagreb Debate on the EU Structural and Cohesion Funds and Citizen Participation

On December 10, 2013 the JoiEU partner in Croatia Cenzura Plus organized a national and trans-border debate on the role civil society can play in shaping the EU structural and Cohesion Policy.

As the newest member of the EU and after a long and successful participation in the accession process Croatian civil society naturally examines with interest the opportunities and the experience of others in applying the EU funds for the further development of the country. The debate was attended fro participants from Croatia, Slovenia, Belgium and Bulgaria and was joined online by a number of JoiEU partners online.

Watch the Zagreb Debate ReLive !

Some Background Info

Check out the official site of the European Commission on the Cohesion Policy 2014-2020

See the Presentation Cohesion Policy 2014-120

Hallo! I would like to change….

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Hallo, I would like to change…

…is a brief snapshot of the attitude of Bulgarian students to the EU and its role in Bulgaria. It is also about the changes they want to see in their country and in Europe and about the role of citizens in these changes. The video was recorded during the JoiEU launch event in Sofia, parts of it will be used in a longer documentary which will be produced later in the project, this is just a taster of what’s to come.

The students want to see many changes, ranging from EU industrial policies to the redefinition of tolerance, but above all they want their voices to be heard, especially so in their own country.

The use of the ring tone instrumental is not accidental…Since the video was shot the students of Bulgaria have woken up to their citizen call and have become far more vocal about their discontent with the political establishment. They have occupied key universities demanding the immediate resignation of the Government and the dissolution of Parliament, which they think epitomize the merging of mafia and politics in the country. As of the date of this post, over 60 % of the Bulgarians support the radical student protest and 76% agree that the Government should step down, as seen by the result of this Alpha Research poll reported by The Sofia Globe.

Talking Partners

JoiEU is a diverse European network of citizen organizations engaged in…organizing the citizens in a very large variety of areas. (the official lingo describes these organizations as “resource centers for citizen participation and capacity building”). For better understanding what the separate organizations do, ProInfo asked some of their representatives on the Sofia launch event to briefly describe their work. They talk about civic participation, citizen rights, developing civil society, dialogue and Europe.

Civic Participation in the Decision Making Process on European Level: Launch Debate

Sofia, October 17-19

Bulgarians Eager to Have Their Voices Heard CC Georgi C

The opening event of this multi-country, trans-border, pan-European, omni-thematic citizen activism initiative took place in Sofia on October 17-19, 2013 and gathered together over 75 participants from 12 countries. The opening day of the initiative was dedicated to the (quite spontaneous) Bulgarian Year of the Citizen, to the (quite well organized) European Year of the Citizens but above all, to discussions about the effectiveness of citizen participation, a problem that has been bothering….