In 2009, Cesvov continue its way towards Europe with its project „European active citizenship – renewable energy”, which is organised in the frame of the Europe for citizens programme of the European Commission. The renewable energy of Varese’s youth meets Europe and Varese will host a 4-day conference on active citizenship seen from various perspectives and from the eyes of Italians, Dutch, Polish and Romanians. The conference aims at bringing forward good practices on the theme of active citizenship in various fields such as volunteering, entrepreneurship, participation in politics and youth participation in the new EU member states.

What is the Europe for Citizens programme?

The Programme Europe for Citizens was established in 2006 as important element in strengthening and safeguarding the process of European integration. The Member States should make citizens fully aware of their European citizenship, its benefits as well as its rights and obligations, “which are to be promoted with due regard for subsidiary and in the interest of cohesion”. (European Parliament legislative resolution on the Council common position for adopting a decision of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing for the period 2007-2013 the programme "Europe for Citizens" to promote active European citizenship (9575/1/2006 – C6-0316/2006 – 2005/0041(COD))
For more information on the programme, click here

Objectives of the project
European active citizenship– renewable energy
The project’s main aim is to enhance young people’s active participation to the social and democratic life of their community and to raise their awareness about the importance of active citizenship in the construction of the future European society. How can youth be active in the society? How can young people use their rights as citizens? How much entrepreneurship spirit do they have? Through this project, we wish to bring together youngsters and civil society organisations to discuss and confront about the topic of the project.  The idea is to exchange good experiences and good practices and to think together about new strategies to encourage young people’s active citizenship.

The project’s partners

The project sees the cooperation of partner organisations from different European countries, two of which Cesvov already works with within the frame of the European Voluntary Service. Each organisation is involved in the project for their own experience in one of the sub-topics of the project. Cesvov will report about the youngsters interest and motivation in volunteering, Lava Legato and CYCM about  Youth Entrepeneurship and finally Centras Constanta about youth participation in the new EU member states.

Activities
The project foresees the organisation of two events:

• The first meeting (Rotterdam, 28-30 September 2009) gave the possibility to each partner to present themselves and start sharing their experiences in the various topics of the project. Furthermore the meeting allowed the partners to work together on the organisation of the conference in Italy.
• The main event of the project takes place in Varese (17-20 November 2009) with all partners. 5 persons have been invited by each partner. These international participants are joined by other Italian young people and youth workers of the province of Varese (in total around 50 participants). The conference foresees the participation of experts from the various sectors (volunteering, entrepreneurship, politics, new EU member states) whose talk invites the participants to debate about the topics. Furthermore, each partner presents one good practice in the field of youth participation in various sectors of the civic society. Cesvov for example focuses on the Mosaico giovani project (“youth mosaic”) which gave the opportunity to some youngsters to carry out summer volunteering activities in local non-profit organisations. Moreover 4 thematic workshops are organised during which the participants are invited to deeper discuss the topics of the conference. The results of the workshops are presented during the final public conference (20 November 2009) that closes the four days of work.

Material from the conference 

Download the conference’s programme as well as the experts’ and partners’ presentations: