European Year of Citizens Alliance – EYCA plenary meeting
On the 6th of May, OBESSU took part in a plenary meeting of EYCA in Brussels. What is EYCA and what was on the agenda of the meeting?
EYCA is the European Year of Citizens Alliance. This year we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the European Union Citizenship established under the Maastricht Treaty in 1993. To mark this, The European Commission proposed the year 2013 to be the “European Year of Citizens”.
The Alliance aims to mobilize and coordinate a Europe-wide debate on citizens’ rights and to foster citizens’ participation in the European Union’s democratic life. EYCA brings together more than 60 civil society organisations: OBESSU joined the Alliance to represent school students and stress the important role they play in European society at all levels. Along with the European Alliance, also National Alliances were formed in order to support the involvement of national stakeholders and connect the national and European level. .
All the organisations involved signed the EYCA Manifesto (available in several languages) which represents and defines the common standpoints and demands around active European citizenship.
The members of EYCA meet every second month in a plenary meeting to discuss what has been going on, what is the current situation and what are the next steps. The work of the Alliance revolves around three main themes, each with its own working group. These themes are:
1) Relevance of participatory citizenship and civil dialogue in the context of the crisis
2) Economic, social, political citizenship: a coherent whole
3) Towards an inclusive citizenship for the European union’s residents
During the meeting in May, the members had the opportunity to ask questions and were updated on the current status of the working groups, as well as the issues National Alliances face. The next meeting will take place in Croatia in July.
For more information about EYCA, go to http://ey2013-alliance.eu/.
Written by Dasa Koribanicova, OBESSU Board Member
