Youth and citizens, European programmes to support good ideas

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The end of the year is a time for good resolutions. The AER Bureau gathered its brilliant representatives to adopt AER’s new political priorities for 2018-2019. Youth and citizenships were very frequently mentioned in the talks before the final decision on priorities was made. “Democratic Sustainability” effectively summarises those exchanges in this clear statement:

“Encourage opportunities for citizens, especially young people, to engage in society
and actively participate in decision-making, through stronger European regions.”

At the same time everyone knows that statements and good ideas are not enough. European funding programmes can be one of the solutions to “give legs” to ideas and turn them into reality.

European Funding Programmes for youth and citizens

Erasmus+ and Europe for citizens are the two programmes that support projects focused especially on youth and citizenship. Both topics are broad but the two programmes set up different priorities.

In Erasmus+ , three Key Actions support projects on learning mobility of individuals, cooperation for innovation and good practices and policy reform. The Europe for Citizens programme builds on two main strands to boost democratic engagement and civic participation and European remembrance.

Both programmes have in common an easy and participant friendly submission process and implementation, with the aim to stimulate the participation of organisations that approach of an European programme or the first time or they are not so used to work with funded projects.

Europe for citizens: easy and non-for profit centred progamme

This programme has a high potential for public authorities as region are.

First, because the programme addresses citizens and citizenship. Secondly, for the stress on the improvement of the conditions for civic and democratic participation and to increase the understanding of a Europe based on diversity and unity. What better to contrast the wave of populism and sectarism?

Key words of the programme are such as intercultural dialogue, transnationality and local dimension. Youth is not directly mentioned, but when the programme calls for a better understanding of the European Unions and of the history behind obviously young people and young adults come to mind.

Speaking about history, the programme set different priorities every year for both strands to grab the momentum and the feelings of citizens and European institutions.

For the European remembrance (Strand 1), these are some of the priorities that are more in line with the AER network actions. Some historical commemoration is more linked to democracy and Europe, as:

1948 The Hague Congress and the integration of Europe and
1968 Protest and civil rights movements, invasion to Czechoslovakia, student protests

Among the other priorities for European remembrance, there is the focus on dictatorship and democracy. The “Democratic transition and accession to the European Union” priority bring projects to think how the EU accession perspective influenced democratic standards and practices of the new democracies.

On the other hand, Democratic engagement and civic participation (Strand 2) priorities claim for a more open and welcoming society. Here some:

Debating the future of Europe and challenging Euroscepticism
Fostering intercultural dialogue and mutual understanding and combatting the stigmatisation of migrants and minority groups
European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018

Europe for citizens find also the mobilisation of citizens under the twinning programme.

Take a look at the document to see all the priorities. The programme is open to non-EU members.

The first deadline of the year is 1st march 2018.

Erasmus+, youth first!

This is the programme for everything related to youth. From mobility to education, from VET to sport, the Erasmus+ gives the opportunity to fund your projects.

Erasmus+ is a multidimension programme, it is hard to approach it all in once. The calls for proposals opened at the moment are dedicated to education and labour market.