Description

On March 15, the EuroChangeMakers #euroCM project was officially launched, the project is funded by the Europe for Citizens program for Civil Society, where the association "Udhëtim i Lirë - Liberi di Viaggiare" is local partner from Albania. EuroChangeMakers comes as a response to the current democratic participation challenges faced during COVID-19 pandemic. #euroCM aims to:

Engage over 300 citizens from all project participating countries in 18 National civic hackathons aimed at discussing, reflecting, and proposing concrete solutions for the Future of Europe; Create an informal network of 100 young EuropeanChangeMakers (ECM) from all project participating countries that are leading by example.

Organize a European civic hackathon gathering over 100 participants from all project participating countries aimed at discussing, reflecting, proposing concrete solutions for the future of Europe, and presenting them to at least 100 European and National stakeholders in the format of a White Paper. Publish and promote EuropeanChangeMakers platform, connected with the social media feeds of the #euroCM hashtag, bringing together all the content created in the project: vlogs, opinions, regional best practices, solutions for the ‘Future of Europe’ and the ECM informal network. The consortium is formed by 19 partners from 18 countries: Romania, Albania, Estonia, Spain, Greece, Portugal, Poland, Slovakia, Italy, Serbia, Lithuania, Hungary, France, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belgium, Sweden and Luxembourg.

EuroChangeMakers Project will raise awareness on how the EU works, specially during the Civic hackathons, where the participants will have the chance to refine their ideas and proposals to fit better into the European framework. Moreover, it will foster the European citizenship understanding and feeling by cooperating at the European level and by involving also eligible countries from the Western Balkans, through the digital platform and the informal youth network at the pan-European level (ECM).

The consortium aims at stimulating debate, reflection and promoting the European values through exciting and effective methods such as vlogging, interviews and Civic Hackathons. Furthermore, it creates several levels of possible engagement: from the simple following of the #euroCM hashtag in the social media and keeping updated with European news and opinions, to participating in a civic hackathon based on collaborative work or even assumming the role of EuroChangeMaker, volunteering for 8 months on EU related topics.

In this process, the citizens are supported by experts from the partner organizations, offered the chance to engage with policymakers during the European Civic Hackathon, both face to face and online and ultimately their views are collected, aggregated and transmitted into the format of a White Paper to the high-level stakeholders. This format is analyzing the future of Europe in three main directions: social cohesion, climate change and digital, three aspects that are also effective in challenging Euroscepticism. The creative format of the Civic hackathons also has the potential to address directly the Eurosceptic narratives, to understand their arguments and collaboratively to design solutions for a more viable European project.

Find more about the project on the official page: eurocm.geyc.ro