After Strasburg

1

• After Strasburg

2

• Meetings among Consvipo and panel activators for
  defining workshop,open call and methodology.

3

• ORGANISATION WORKSHOP/SETUP OF CITIZENS PANELS

4
QUESTIONNAIRE
5
Collection of questionnaires

• Consvipo
• Municipality where the three activators live
• 1) Polesella
• 2) Taglio di Po
• 3) Rovigo
• a) Front
  office of the Municipality
• b) Youth
  policies
• c) Senior
  citizen office
• d)
  Volunteer centre
• e)
  Library
• f) Front
  office of the Province of Rovigo
• g) Loans
  office of the Province of Rovigo
• Municipality of Arquà Polesine (RO)
• Municipality of Ceregnano (RO)
• Municipality of Bosaro (RO)

6
Questionnaires collected 621 Questionnaires
with errors 59 Sample investigation
562 questionnaires
7
Gender of interviewees
8
Age of interviewees
9
Employment
10
Membership of a voluntary organization
11
Tipology of voluntary organization
12
According to your opinion,the European Union is
13
The European Union should be more
14
You feel yourself more a citizen of
15
In your opinion, how useful are European policies
for Italy?
16
Italy is able to utilise the opportunities of the
EU?
17
In your opinion,regarding European members, the
enlargement of the EU in regards to the eastern
countries has been
18
The main problem of EU is the lack of
19
What is your knowledge level of European
Institutions?
20
In your opinion,a better knowledge of languages
could facilitate an integration among EU states?
21
The international projects are
22
Which tools could better develop an active
citizenship at European level?
23
To partecipate in active citizenship projects is
necessary
24
The main topics of the discussion
25

• Considerations
• Who feels mainly an European citizen?
• The Students without distinction of sex.
• They consider the EU as an opportunity for their
  future.
• In order to facilitate European integration,
  inform citizens and create professionalities,
  they think it is necessary to understand foreign
  languages and to participate in international
  programs,with concrete exchanges.
• Topics that they would develop are
  culture,education and learning.

26
Considerations

• The students
• They are strongly in favour of inserting the
  subject Europa at school
• They feel themselves citizens of their nation.
• They have a mediocre or insufficient knowledge of
  European Institutions
• They feel the need for a united culture
• They are in favour of increasing their knowledge
  of languages and to all that is useful in order
  to inform citizens and create professionalities

27

• Considerations
• Citizens from 40 to 59 years old
• They are workers that they also consider the EU
  as an opportunity.
• They feel citizens of their nation,instead of
  Europe and different from the other categories,
  they consider the EU as an union of economical
  interests instead of a state association
• According to them, Italy should be more coherent
  when institutions have to define common policies.
  In fact Italy is not able to utilise
  opportunities given by EU.
• They think that a development of an active
  citizenship is necessary, to introduce the
  Europe subject at school

28

• Considerations
• Who feels mainly a citizen of their
  Municipalities are young student
• They would say that the EU is for the citizens
  because it is an opportunity for the future.
• They affirm that the lack of a united european
  culture is a problem.
• and they consider that the enlargement to the
  eastern countries is a risk.
• Who considers,instead,citizens of Europe,affirms
  that the enlargement is an opportunity.

29
Considerations

• A low percentage of the interviewees, without
  distinction of sex consider the EU as a brake for
  economy.
• They think the enlargement is an error or a risk
• The international projects are interesting, but
  not useful enough to inform citizens and create
  professionality.
• A topic they would prioritise is economy and
  work.

30
Considerations

• 33 people out of 562 (6) think international
  projects are waste of time and money.
• These people arent aged between 20 and 40 years.
  They dont want to be considered citizens of
  Europe. They have an insufficient knowledge of
  European Institutions.
• They prefer to insert the Europe subject in
  schools, instead of to using projects,seminars or
  exchanges.

31

• WORKING GROUPS
• Culture, education and learning
• Economy, work and youth policies
• Security and immigration

32
WORKING GROUP METODOLOGY

• General objective
• To define strategies and actions to increase
• The knowledge of the active citizenship.
• The relationship among european citizens and
  european intitutions.
• Expected resultsTo define tools
• to define citizens opinions and to incite
  discussion among citizens
• Tools to urge the dialogue among european
  citizens and their institutions
• In particular, to gather in each working group
• Opportunities
• Problems
• Strategies at International, European and local
  level.

33
Working group conclusions

• Meaning of partecipation and active citizenship
• Interest in social life
• Civic commitment and involvement
• To have the possibility to express yourself
  clearly
• To draw near to the idea of Europe
• To have a good knowledge of languages

34
Working groups conclusions

• Suggested tools for the partecipation
• More information at school (info days,
  meetings..)
• Forum and blog for discussion about politics and
  social topics
• To attend the association activities (voluntary
  organisations..)
• To transfer good pratices through exchanges

35
Working group conclusions

• Suggested tools to stimulate relationships among
  citizens and Institutions
• The Institutions should
• organise visits to their head office
• make known projects
• fund projects for the young people
• enter in the social networks of young people
• create structures to facilitate exchanges
• The citizen should
• be interested in project that affects them
• bring themselves constantly

36
Working group conclusion

• Problems
• Cultural and linguistic limits
• Indifference for some matters
• Scanty information and comunications
• Exploitation of the elections

37

• Meeting THE ACTIVE CITIZENS
• Thursday 25th June 2009
• Common citizens develop ideas, suggestions and
  tools through discussion in order to influence
  the decision making of actors about own
  community, territory and everyday life.

38

• THE ACTIVE CITIZENS meeting
• Conclusions
• Needs
• Publication of the Questionnaire Citizens for
  Europe released in May to make citizens and
  institutions aware of the actual need to develop
  a knowledge of Europe and the limits regarding
  this .
• A direct link with public administrators, who
  should be continuously available to listen to the
  people.
• The creation of a Council for active citizenship
  and participation.
• The adoption of methods of work in progress or
  working methods that ensure the development of
  activities.
• Strenghening and development of projects already
  in the field instead of establishing new
  initiatives.

39

• THE ACTIVE CITIZENS meeting
• Conclusions
• Proposals
• Create a platform for discussion where you can
  communicate in issues European and where we can
  provide a File download where you can find
  material useful for making yourself active .
• Develop E-learning technologies within the reach
  of all ages.
• Teach what is Europe in the elementary schools,
  through comics, games and audio-visual techniques
  (such as interactive CD) by reducing and making
  learning more interesting.
• Create networks or multimedia workshops through
  institutions such as municipal, regional and
  provincial, but also the development agencies of
  the territory though direct communication with
  each other.
• Develop a social platform like Facebook, which
  allows a connection with anyone who
  works,studies,or who is otherwise interested in
  European subjects.
• Training for students and teachers in order to
  raise awareness of the opportunities that Europe
  offers.
• Select the most interesting initiatives, avoiding
  overloading and consequently wasteing
  institutions resourses.

40

• THE ACTIVE CITIZENS meeting
• Conclusions
• Limits
• Inadequate political will to break down the
  barriers that divide people in the institutions
• . Loss of passion that comes from not obtaining
  results
• Difficulty in establishing continuous interest in
  the subject

41

• NEXT STEPS
• 3 Info days in autumn, organised at school in
  order to involve students and teachers.

42

• ADDED VALUE
• The questionnaire
• Our activator has been elected provincial
  councilor.
• A degree about ALL4EU project.

43
Thanks for your attention Mrs. Silvia
Bergoglio Responsable service planning and
development territory actions e-mail
bergoglio_at_consvipo.it Consorzio per lo Sviluppo
del Polesine CONSVIPO - V.le delle Industrie,
53/b 45100 ROVIGO - Tel. [phone] -
Fax. [phone] - E-mail
consvipo_at_consvipo.it - Web site www. consvipo.it