Alliance for Citizenship Competences in Europe
A new advocacy alliance
The Alliance will bring together civil society actors whose mission includes enhancing citizenship competences in Europe.
Democracy can only be sustained by democrats. This simple but trueful sentence comes with many implications that democratic societies must consider. One of them being: how to ensure the next generation of democrats?
This is even more important in a European context, provided that the Union is a community of common values and is becoming increasingly political beyond economic ties – to say the least. The institutional base for this was set in the treaty of Maastricht – with the foundations of European citizenship. At the same time, the rise of populist and anti-constitutional movements highlight the urgent need for active, democratic citizenship.
To safeguard European values and ensure future generations of democratic Europeans, ECAS and Values Unite are co-launching the Alliance for Citizenship Competences in Europe.
How we got here
Based on ECAS’ mission to “empower incites to exercise their citizenship rights” the Brussels-based NGO echoed Values Unite’s call and endorsed the initiative. In February 2021, both organisations then co-organised the conference “Enhancing citizenship competences in Europe”. It features a number of high-level speakers and was well received. And the work paid off: the EP report P9_TA(2021)0345 in (July 2021) has multiple references to enhancing civic education and citizenship competences.
Where we want to go
The next steps will be to get civil society actors on board and join forces to carry out advocacy on this matter. This is why we are launching the Alliance for Citizenship Competences in Europe. Civil society organisations (pan-European, national, or regional) that have a stake in enhanced civic education in Europe are invited to join the alliance. More information can be found here.
The goal of the Alliance is to enhance citizenship competences by exchanging views and experiences in this field, developing common positions and visions as to how to enhance citizenship competences and addressing policy-makers and stakeholders with policy recommendations.
Become a member of the Alliance
Would you like to join as a member of the Alliance? Please fill out the following short application form for civil society organisations or individuals. Do not hesitate to reach out to Hendrik Nahr, coordinator of the Alliance in case you have any questions.
Facilitator
Hendrik Nahr is ambassador at Values Unite coordinating the Alliance for Citizenship Competences in Europe. At the European Citizen Action Service (ECAS) based in Brussels he is European Democracy Outreach Coordinator. Reach out to Hendrik for more information on joining the alliance: hendrik.nahr@ecas.org.