11-11-2015

Everything ready for the 2nd International Partner Meeting – Conference “European Identity building - transnational civic education” in Daugavpils, Latvia within the framework of “European regions developing European Citizenship” project

Daugavpils City Council together with sixteen regions, towns and Civil Society Organisations from eleven EU countries and with the coordination of Lodzkie Region (Poland) have created a project proposal in the framework of the Europe for Citizens Programme.

The aim of this programme is to:

ü  Contribute to citizens' understanding of the EU, its history and diversity.

ü  Foster European citizenship and improve conditions for civic and democratic participation at EU level.

The project is submitted within the programme activity “Democratic engagement & civic participation- getting citizens involved”,  “Networks of towns”, which means towns are encouraged to cooperate with other towns on a long‑term basis to explore particular topics or themes, share resources or interests, gain influence or face common challenges. More information about the Europe for Citizens Programme may be found under this link: https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/europe-for-citizens_en.

The involved Partners have at least one thing in common: they all share a general interest in the EU matters and they are all promoters of the EU policies on their territory. They have also noticed that the “Brussels-speak” is difficult for people, who are not involved in European policy, to understand and that it is hard to translate it into simple everyday terminology. Perhaps this is why citizens generally do not feel that the EU communicates with them at all, and in consequence, they manifest poor democratic participation.

This cooperation is dedicated to the regional dimension of the European Citizenship that means: providing adequate communication and information on the Union, building synergies of the use of different EU funds, and mobilizing citizens to debate on European matters, make policies more understandable and linked to everyday life. Within the present project it is planned to raise the interest and involvement of citizens of each participating country and city in general.

Within the project “European regions developing European Citizenship” 558833-CITIZ-1-2014-2-PL-CITIZ-NT it is planned to organize five events that will make use of participatory methods, such as simulations, workshops and brokerage sessions. In  July, 2015, in Lodzkie Region, Poland, was held a “kick-off meeting”. It was planned that the following event will be organized in Milan (Italy) in October 2015 on citizenship education, but it was cancelled by host partner. Daugavpils City Council was chosen to host this event in November, 2015.  After it will follow the event in Bistrica (Slovenia) in February 2016 on voting rights, afterwards again in Lodzkie in June 2016 on the entrepreneurial spirit of European citizens, and the final event in Brussels in October 2016 to reach the political centre of Europe.

12^th-14^th November, Daugavpils City Council will share the experience, give lectures, involve participants in work-shops and study-visits and provide rich cultural programme. The conference “European Identity building -  transnational civic education” will focus on such themes as Culture - tool for the cooperation of nations, Exploration of European Values, Youth leadership: Human securitability and civic initiatives, Dynamics of Social Representations on EU countries, Structured dialogue and youth participation at local level, The comparison of national political cultures: social and political activity of young people in Europe. It is planned the participation of over one hundred EU citizens from 11 countries.

Everything is ready for the conference and Daugavpils city is open for the coming guests, as always. Unfortunately the temperature in the city is about +10 degrees and rainy, so, please, take something warm to wear and umbrella. If not, we will warm up you with our hospitality!

AGENDA

The present project is implemented with the support of the Europe for Citizens programme of the European Union.