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United Supporting Europe
Start date: May 18, 2016, End date: Mar 17, 2017 PROJECT  FINISHED 

"United Supporting Europe" will take place in Modica (Ragusa) in the south east of Sicily between August 19th -26th, 2016. The main aims of this project are to counteract the phenomena of Euroscepticism and better understand the idea of European citizenship. During 7 days long,participants will write a constitution, to allow more Europeans to be closer to Europe, fostering a common sense of belonging to the same European Union and a mutual understanding between different cultures. The project wants to include in this mission, the citizens of Modica through the creation of slogans and mosaics in the historic center of the city, in which participants will allow citizens to creatively express their thoughts and dreams about Europe.In order to analyze deeply the phenomena of our project, we have involved young people from countries in which, for various reasons, there's a debate between Eurosceptics and euro-enthusiastic in their public opinions. In this debate, people have focusing on austerity policies of the ECB (especially in Italy), which led the public opinion in these countries to consider Europe as an obstacle to any instance of social and political nature; we also have involved countries that are not EU members at the moment, but who are interested in the phenomenon of enlargement and where there is a a huge debate among the citizens of these countries (Turkey is a candidate country) or where the enlargement is recent (Czech Republic, Romania and Estonia) or the eurosceptic forces are consistent (Denmark). It's that the historical moment in the Identity Building process of Europe , where there is, at the meanwhile, a critique toward Europe and a demand for more democracy and rights.As it can be noted, participants come from different countries where the idea of a European Union of Peoples is threatened by several factors: Euroscepticism, economic crisis, populism and nationalism and the rise of xenophobic impulses in countries such as France, Italy and the United Kingdom. The process of political union that brought together up to now 28 countries in the European Union is beginning to weaken. The causes described above, have generated a wave of intolerance that has threatened the concept of European citizenship and the rights connected to it and at the same time brings some political movements to consider the European Union as a threat to the sovereignty or, at least, as an enthity not enough democratic. The latter scenario is clearly revealed when the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, has not been ratified because was perceived as imposed by the "top" and not mediated by a form of representation; that's why the results of the referendum (2009) in the Netherlands and France, stopped the ratification of the Treaty.It 'a widespread opinion that the European citizens, can not influence socio-political structure of EU. Many political scientists and analysts have argued that the European Institutions suffer from a "democratic deficit": the EU parliament is not fully involved in the decision-making process and neither the governments of the 28 fully involve their citizens in many of the decisions that they vote in Europe . Therefore, the European institutional framework should aim for more democracy and more participation for European citizens.During this exchange, we want to improve and make more evident a strong sense of belonging to Europe. First of all, trying to understand our common roots and values, and our idea of Europe. Subsequently, through an intense parliamentary simulation, create a new Constitution of the European Youth. We also want to involve the citizens of Modica in a day dedicated to create mosaics and slogans in favor of a more democracy and participation, encouraging dialogue and encounter between our cultures. Participants also will take care of a campaign with the material produced in favor of the ideas that emerged during the sessions, building a Tool On-line (a web site and other social media) on the Idea of Europe that this project wants to promote. To know each other better and to learn about our common roots, there will be 3 intercultural evenings.The non-formal approach is the chosen method. Which provides that the facilitators will manage the business in order to allow participants to have the floor and perform tasks autonomously. Anyone can participate freely and without a specific role and hierarchical, feeling active and useful in determining the success of the exchange.

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