Pimp my Europe
Start date: Aug 1, 2016,
End date: May 31, 2017
PROJECT
FINISHED
For a few years now, we are witness to European societies taking a new direction. No longer a community of liberty, democracy, solidarity, respect for human rights and basic civil liberties – the values and principles which founded the European Union are less and less realised in political decision making. It is time to refresh the principles of brotherhood and solidarity that helped the European countries to become a European Union more than 60 years ago.The Vth cycle of the European Structured Dialogue is based on the primary theme of "Enabling all young people to engage in a diverse, connected and inclusive Europe. Ready for life, ready for society". This theme makes youth work a protagonist of the self‐development of youths as EU citizens and gives it responsibility to prepare the ground for a new direction of our societies.Youths live in a more diverse and connected world, they recognise diversity and use Information and Communications Technology for collapsing distances. Youths have the potential to break down borders and cultural barriers. Thanks to the internet, our world no longer recognises distances and borders, and members of the new generation become world citizens. This new "global generation" is the youth of the XXIst century, having been born on a continent, where borders are no longer obstacles (for some), where multiculturalism is seen as an enrichment, not as a threat, where having friends of different nationalities enlarges and helps further recognising the importance of cultural diversity.The project "PIMP MY EUROPE - re-thinking EU citizenship" aims to re‐discover the values of Human rights, Democracy and EU Citizenship and to create the right conditions for youths to take ownership of the European Union as citizens, with rights and responsibilities,; to enable them to become real actors of a new change for the future of a re‐connected European Union.The project is defined by three phases, lasting from August 2016 to May 2017, each of these phases represent a step by step learning process in which around 80 youths, aged between 16 and 26 years old, will be the protagonists. In each phase the group of youths will take decisions supported by the youth workers using non‐formal educational methods.After a prepration phase on the project topics, a Conference with policy makers will be organised at national level where the young Europeans will get the chance to present their idea of a future Europe: the aim of the meeting is to create a "new common language" on the values and principles of the European Union. The meeting with policy makers will be facilitated by experts with the objective of producing a set of common recommendations and a final product with the title "Pimp my Europe - Citizens recreating EU citizenship”.The project "PIMP MY EUROPE - re-thinking EU citizenship" will be a national project but other European organisations have applied for the same project in other countries, adjusting it to their situation and the needs of their participants. The PIMP MY EUROPE parallel projects are born because all these organisations are part of an international network called EWOCA that deals with international mobility of youth.Trough PIMP MY EUROPE, the national network of partner organisations wants to make known the Structured Dialogue process and give the opportunity to the youth to make their voice heard, enabling them to start changing the reality from their daily life and having a confrontation with the institutional and political world.