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Sunday, October 1, 2006

The “Golden Stars”: the Commission boosts civic participation

Mayors and other representatives from towns and civic organisations from all over Europe gathered in Brussels today for the “Europe for the Citizens” Forum. The conference debated the problem of European citizens’ civic participation at the European level. The event culminated with the award of this year’s ‘Golden Stars’ for excellence in European Citizenship to six town twinning schemes and five civil society projects.

The Forum “Europe for the Citizens” brings together representatives from towns and civic organisations from all over Europe, and this year, the event included mayors for the first time. Together, these diverse groups explored issues relating to civic participation at the European level.

Survey evidence repeatedly shows that average Europeans know little about the EU and feel that they have little say in the EU’s decision-making processes. In her opening address, Vice-President Margot Wallström, responsible for Institutional Relations and Communication Strategy, said: “The important role of the EU can be appreciated from newspaper front-page headlines and the television news. There is debate on the services directive, gas supplies or GMOs. EU’s importance is growing. Yet if the EU is to gain the confidence of its citizens, it must deliver real improvements and at the same time make progress as regards democracy, openness and citizen participation.”

The high point of the Forum was the award of this year’s ‘Golden Stars’ to eleven outstanding projects. The awards for European Citizenship were first granted in 1994, and have since been presented each year. This year, six award winners were town twinning projects, and five were for projects managed by civil society organisations. The prize winners included such projects as: —

* the town-twinning scheme involving three university theatres in Nancy (France), Karlsruhe (Germany), and Lublin (Poland), one of which works with differently abled people. Nancy hosted a theatre project with the theme 'prejudices and realities' under the direction of professional theatre makers;
* the Polish civil society project that raised awareness of how best to work together to build a common Europe in two rural areas in Poland and Slovakia, while helping to conduct public debates on European issues by local social leaders.

The winners in the town twinning category are:

* Nancy (FR) - Karlsruhe (DE), Lublin (PL)
* Siedlce (PL)- Pescantina (IT), Sabinov (SK), Vilnius (LT)
* Zierenberg (DE) - Gattatico (IT)
* Otinyent (ES) – Mark (SE)
* Leeds city council (UK) – Brno (CZ)
* Them (DK) – Gulbene (LV)

In the civil society organisation category the winners are:

* Women for a tolerant, multicultural and multi-religious Europe.
European Contact Group (Czech Republic)
* Disadvantaged young workers acting for a Europe without exclusion.
International Co-ordination of Young Christian Workers (CIJOC)
* New European Citizens! Televised Debate and International workshop.
Friends of the earth (Malta)
* Euro-discussions, euro-awareness, euro-activity.
Centre for social and economic development (Poland)
* Youth and the enlarged European Union.
Cyprus Workers’ Confederation (Cyprus)

More information :
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/education_culture/activecitizenship/index_en.htm

http://ec.europa.eu/towntwinning/best/best_en.html

Source  European Commission

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