20 years after the introduction of the “European citizenship” concept, in the Treaty of Maastricht, 2013 has officially been named the “European Citizen Year”.

Via actions, events and animations, the EU will lay stress on the different rights of the European citizenship and on how European actors can benefit from European programmes.

With 1 million euro budget, the European Citizen Year agenda will be implemented via some key actions:

-“Active citizens for Europe”: the aim is to gather different local communities throughout Europe, sharing experiences, opinions and values, as well as fostering meetings, debates and exchanges between European citizens.

-“Active civil society in Europe”: Structural support to civil society organizations and think-thank to launch projects. This action aims to help the arising of a structured and efficient civil society on a European level. This support will be mainly via European programmes such as “Fundamental Rights and Citizenship”, ”Long Life Learning”, “Youth in Action”, “ERASMUS”, “Media Programme”, “Sciences and Society 2013”.

-“Together for Europe”: This action will stimulate a wide participation of citizens to the political life throughout Europe, contributing thus to bring Europe and its citizen closer, via information and communication activities.

All year long, the EU will support dialogue between : citizens, civil society actors, companies, Member States and EU Institutions, in order to define, together, what Europe 2020 will be.