TALE: TAke the Lead in the EU elections
Project partners:
- ALDA (coordinator)
- ECoD NPO (Subcontractor)
- Union of Bulgarian Black Sea Local Authorities
- Association Leader France
- Foster Europe Foundation for strong European Regions
- Associacao Para O Desenvolvimento Da Participacao Cidada
- Addociation for developing voluntary work Novo Mesto
- Udruga za promicanje aktivnog gradanstva (ECHO)
Funded: Pan-European Civil society engagement grants – European Elections 2024 / EP-COMM-SUBV-2022-PAN-EU-E/ Category 3 – Capacity building and citizens’ engagement actions
Duration: 18 months (01.01.2023-31.08.2024)
Grant amount: 160.142,62 EUR (80% funding rate)
Following the principal objective of this Call – to encourage and to facilitate the active engagement of European young citizens with the construction of a vibrant European democracy – ALDA’s member organisations in 7+ countries (France, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Croatia and Austria) will include a series of bottom-up, participatory workshops, events and trainings, aimed at raising awareness of the importance of the upcoming elections and increasing voter turnout. To multiply the effects of the activities, ALDA is planning on using the European Capital of Democracy’s Citizens’ Jury, a network of 10,000 European Citizens. 50+ Citizens’ Jurors will be trained as change-makers to run local campaigns and activities, especially aimed at young Europeans, who often refrain from casting their vote in European Elections after disappointing or mixed first election experiences. To reach the project’s main objective and to guarantee a successful implementation of the activities that are foreseen, it is fundamental to take into account the national and sociology-cultural context of each Member States which is involved.
The project objective: to design and implement tailor-made communication strategies and activities to reach and engage a greater number of possible voters and, through participatory processes, activate and empower them to play an active role and thus vote in the next European parliamentary elections in 2024. The communication will focus on giving new trust to the EU info channels and platforms, using them to promote a voting campaign filled with correct, reliable and accurate information and news against the spreading of distrust. The campaign will also focus on raising awareness about the importance of voting to live in structured representative democracies.
Planned results:
- Trained selected number of (mostly) young people, chosen through a specific selection process, that will come from youth associations or from the formal education sector (schools and universities); they will be a vehicle in order to spread the knowledge they get from the training. The training will be related to EU values, institutions, EU Parliament elections and the importance of clear and transparent news. Both the communication and theoretical skills that will be provided to the change-makers will allow them to be more effective in reaching large numbers of citizens and raising awareness about the EU Parliament elections that will take place in 2024.
- Created a communication campaign that will be supported by the change-makers and will allow citizens to get reliable information, debate about the next EU Parliament elections and get closer to the every-day life of the European institutions. Through the campaign – that will be realised using online and offline tools – people will have the opportunity to learn how to use the together.eu platform and actually use it to get in contact and exchange with each other, creating a cooperative environment, in line with the EU values and the objective of this call.
Role of UBBSLA: to involve schools in Bulgaria, based on the productive relationships established with the Education departments in its municipality members, for the selection of change-makers; they will receive training and will be a vehicle of the EU values and will promote the voting campaign. This will be an example of good practice for the whole country and will guarantee cooperation between citizens that will positively affect their relationship with local institutions too, leading to a more stable democracy
Diversity and inclusiveness in all participatory measures are overarching goals, as a healthy and resilient democracy has to be carried by a broad societal consensus. All activities contribute to the establishment of pan-European participatory channels, connecting citizens with European initiatives and projects, and encouraging their active participation in platforms such as together.eu, which will be a central hub for promoting all activities and events. In order to give new credibility to the media and fight the spreading of fake news, Social networks and discussion groups will be used as campaigning and promotion channels, guaranteeing a high visibility and Europe-wide audience beyond the scope of direct participants. Furthermore, the design and innovative approach of our activities will be suitable to raise the attention of classical media.