We, at European Alternatives, have edited a Manifesto for European democracy, equality and solidarity– a result of hundreds of citizens’ panels across Europe where individuals gave their opinions and inputs on what needs to change in today’s Europe. We have also been organising the Transeuropa Festival for five years now, and have run several transnational campaigns on fundamental rights and migrant rights, as well as the European Citizens Initiative on media reform. To help build a transnational movement connecting the struggles of Europe’s citizens and the many inspiring organisations and initiatives active all over Europe, we initiated the Transeuropa Caravans tour, showcasing the efforts of locally rooted initiatives who are enacting another Europe through their practice.
We believe this is the right time to assemble activists from across Europe in a three-day campus environment for reflection, learning and strategising. It’s a moment to come together, unite our ideas, practices, and proposals to build on our common struggles for democracy and equality in Europe and beyond. Let’s use the opportunity created by the renewal of the European Parliament and of the European Commission to build new entryways for policy change and re-shaping the dominant European narrative. Let’s come together this autumn and define our goals and methods to #fixEurope!
The camp will be about defining political priorities for the year ahead. The economic and social crisis in Europe is far from over, and its effects continue to be felt by large parts of the population. The ECI against TTIP is about to start and the movement behind it seems to be in a prime starting position to achieve 1 million signatures. The conflict in Ukraine puts into question Europe’s commitment to peace: what can civil society do to improve the situation? Migrants continue to die in the Mediterranean sea and at border crossings trying to enter the EU – where do we need continued pressure to end this plight? What other thematics are to be taken up in the next months, what practices and lessons learnt can we exchange, what ideas do you think should be receiving more attention?
The camp will be about learning the tools for achieving the change we aspire to. Training workshops will aim to empower participants in new techniques for campaigning, advocacy and communication at EU level; we will learn how the use of new technologies can help activists on the ground; we will map the new European institutions and study which attempts at influencing decision-making have worked and why.
The Campus will be divided into three strands looking at:
1 – How to influence policy making / building up a citizens lobby,
2 – How to bring grassroots practices and local change to a transnational dimension
3 – How to build networks and how to connect (online and offline) communities.
The type of formats will range from expert-led discussions and workshops, to peer-to-peer trainings including time for exchange and building up own project ideas. Participants are encouraged to present own sessions and give inputs.
The #FixEurope Campus will take place between October 21 – 24 at Schloss Wartin. It will be followed by a public conference on Saturday October 25th held at the Heinrich-Böll Foundation in the centre of Berlin opened by Saskia Sassen.
We invite you to join us for four days of in-depth analysis, common reflections, intense inputs, shared learnings, open debates and cheerful exchanges in a beautiful rural setting to the North-East of Berlin.