This strand support activities covering civic participation, focusing on European Union policies as well as initiatives developing opportunities for mutual understanding, intercultural learning, solidarity, societal engagement and volunteering at EU level.
The strand includes three specific measures:
- Town twinning – supporting projects bringing together citizens from twinned towns. By mobilising citizens at local and EU levels to debate on concrete issues from the European political agenda, this measure will seek to promote civic participation in the EU policy making process and develop opportunities for societal engagement and volunteering at EU level.
- Networks of towns – providing funding to municipalities and associations working together on a common theme in a long-term perspective, and wishing to develop networks of towns to make their cooperation more sustainable.
- Civil society projects – supporting projects gathering citizens in activities directly linked to EU policies, providing an opportunity for direct participation in the policy making process. Funded activities may include: promotion of societal engagement and solidarity, gathering of opinions, volunteering.
For this strand, the priorities of the programme for 2016-2020 are:
- Understanding and Debating Euroscepticism
- Solidarity in times of crisis
- Combatting stigmatisation of “immigrants” and building counter narratives to foster intercultural dialogue and mutual understanding
- Debate on the future of Europe
Project grants presented on this strand are as follows:
Town Twinning (max eligible € 25.000, max duration 21 days)
Networks of towns (max eligible € 150.000, max duration 24 months)
Civil society projects (max eligible € 150.000, max duration 18 months)
