Enlargement and Citizenship – Looking to the Future
CEDEM, in partnership with the Institute of Public Affairs in Poland, the Center for Public Policy PROVIDUS in Latvia, the European Institute in Bulgaria and the Center for Euro-Atlantic Studies in Belgrade, has launched the Enlargement and Citizenship – Looking to the Future project. The main coordinator of the project, which is being implemented with the support of the European Commission, through the program “Europe for Citizens”, is PASOS from the Czech Republic.
The aim of this program is to bring the EU closer to its citizens and enable them to participate in the decision-making process at the EU level. Through this program, citizens have the opportunity to get involved in the process of international exchanges and the implementation of activities aimed at establishing international cooperation, contributing to the development of a sense of belonging to common European values and strengthening the process of European integration.
The project includes an in-depth analysis of the achievements of EU enlargement, the level of engagement of new member states and its citizens, organization of citizens’ associations and seminars, implementation of media campaigns and presentation of reports aimed at the public and political decision makers in new member states and candidate countries. into EU membership.
The project has three goals:
education of citizens of European countries and representatives of the civil sector on the processes of creating EU policies and public advocacy of communication strategies at the EU level, as well as disseminating information on mechanisms for influencing EU citizens on the decision-making process at EU level.
Second, raising public awareness in EU Member States and candidate countries of the need to engage citizens to ensure that their elected representatives and their governments are fully engaged at EU level in implementing policy decisions that meet the needs of citizens.
Third, strengthening the influence of citizens on the political process ahead of the 2014 European Parliament elections.
Activities: Activities planned by the project are:
preparation of a Basic Study covering 11 new EU member states on the degree of integration and engagement of states in the EU decision-making process;
public opinion polls on the level of information of citizens when it comes to the creation of EU policies and the level of engagement in the four new member states, analysis of existing surveys and interviews with decision makers at the EU level;
preparation of a comparative study with a focus on the four new EU member states; including the preparation of a study on the level of engagement of the two countries that are candidates for membership in the EU (Montenegro and Serbia), with a review of the achievements so far in the accession process,
organizing citizens’ associations in the new Member States and candidate countries for EU membership to discuss the results and conclusions of national studies;
identifying the strengths and weaknesses of governments in the decision-making process at EU level and strengthening the role of citizens in that process;
organizing national round tables and organizing a media campaign with the aim of strengthening the influence of member states and candidate countries for EU membership and their citizens in the EU integration process;
Final public opinion poll, media outreach and advocacy.
