Institut für Europäische Politik IEP

Future of Europe: Bringing more union into the European Union

Period of imple­men­tation: September 2018 – October 2019

Euros­cep­ticism, democratic deficit and low electoral turnout are affecting all EU countries. Across the EU, we are witnessing extensive protests or forms of active citizenship, ranging from pro rule of law protests in Romania and Bulgaria, recent anti-populism and pro EU in Germany or anti-austerity movements in Greece. In this context, how can we use most of these civic manifes­ta­tions to debate the future of the EU? These movements require special attention for a proper under­standing of the values their supporters stand for.

This overall trend is doubled also by another worrying pheno­menon: disin­for­mation, fake news and trolling are most visible during the electoral campaigns, in an attempt to hamper with EU elections, undermine pro-European values, and promote natio­na­listic and xenophobic messages. This scenario is damaging for the EU 2019 elections that may record another all-time low voter turnout.

The project “A new narrative for Europe: Bringing more union into the European Union” aims to translate the messages from the grass root level and connect them to the EU public policies, favoring a more bottom-up approach, closer to EU citizens. There is an urgent need to raise awareness and know how among youth on the importance of EU 2019 elections and empowering them with the needed tools to gain momentum and influence over EU’s direction through inter­active and user friendly methods.

Furthermore, we intend to document and address the protests as a new form of democratic parti­ci­pation that could be further used as an oppor­tunity to re-shape European identity across borders, combat new populist trends and increase voter turnout.

The main outcomes of the project are:

• Organising inter­active online debate compe­ti­tions on EU elections and Video Storytelling with youths and activists focusing on EU challenges (Euros­cep­ticism, democratic deficit, EU elections).
• Organising 4 “town hall meetings” comple­mented by 1 trans­na­tional event on the future of Europe and the new forms of active citizenship;
• Elabo­rating position papers and key recom­men­da­tions based on the findings during the project that will be disse­mi­nated at EU level.

The project targets youths, students, activists from Romania, Bulgaria, Germany and Greece, with an interest in the recent street protests and demons­tra­tions and engaged in the public debate that can further create appro­priate mecha­nisms to combat the lack of trust in the EU and Euroscepticism.