Europe for Citizens – Town Twinning
Town twinning is aimed at activities that involve or promote direct exchanges between European citizens through their participation in town twinning activities and encourage networking and cooperation between twinned towns. Democratic engagement and civic participation within the within the »Europe for Citizens 2014-2020 programme. This strand aims to foster European citizenship and improve conditions for civic and democratic participation at EU level, to encourage democratic participation of citizens at EU level and to support concrete participation in the EU policy-making process.
Finder partnersuche
Strand 2. Democratic engagement and civic participation is directed at activities covering civic participation, focusing in particular on European Union policies.Initiatives developing opportunities for mutual understanding, intercultural learning, solidarity, societal engagement and volunteering at EU level.
Volunteering is an essential element in active citizenship: by giving one’s time for the benefit of others, volunteers service their community and play an active role in society. They develop the sense of belonging to a community thereby also gaining ownership. Volunteering is therefore a particularly powerful means to develop citizens’ commitment to their society and to its political life. Civil society organisations, associations of a European general interest, town twinning associations and other participating organisations often rely on volunteer work to carry out and to develop their activities. Therefore, particular attention is paid to the promotion of volunteering, in particular through the European Solidarity Corps. In its first phase, the European Solidarity Corps, the new EU initiative which aims at giving young people across the EU the opportunity to volunteer where help is needed and to respond to crisis situations, will build on existing EU programmes including the Europe for Citizens programme.