A 2016 partnership between the European Civic Forum and Volonteurope, the European Citizenship Awards promote and give visibility to outstanding and inspiring initiatives and individuals who have put European democratic citizenship into practice, and in so doing have had a positive impact on their communities. The candidates were selected through an international jury and public […]
Last week the European Economic and Social Committee organised the first European Day of Social Economy Enterprises. I was inspired by the stories of three entrepreneurs who presented their activities at the event. Social economy enterprises embed a different way of doing business that puts people and the environment before profit. The best way to […]
In this in-depth analysis, migration and development expert, Bob van Dillen, exposes the weaknesses of the European Commission’s Migration Partnership Framework and questions its capacity to really serve the purpose of helping people in need. Additionally, the author lays down a series of urgent actions that, if applied, will not only truly help people in […]
Caritas Europa urges leaders gathering at the European Council meeting of 28-29 June to rethink the EU-Turkey agreement. The ongoing migration and asylum situation is revealing an emerging threat to European values. Today, Caritas Europa issued a new position paper on the agreement in which it expresses its belief “in the capacity of Europe to […]
This week I spent four inspiring days in Vienna. The first day I participated in a Hackathon and opening reception of the Fundamental Rights Forum (read my blog), and the second day was about rights governance (read my blog). In this last post I will share a few highlights from the two last days, about […]
The first day of the Fundamental Rights Forum focused on a ‘rights-based governance’. These are some of the interesting contributions by the many speakers that I took with me: ‘Real democracy allows people and civil society to ask questions about governance’ stated Ulrike Lunacek, Vice-President of the European Parliament. ‘The first thing we have to […]
This week I will be blogging from Vienna, where I am at the Fundamental Rights Forum, organised by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights. The Forum gathers more than 650 participants around the topics of inclusion, refugee protection and the digital age, from the angles of innovation, governance, empowerment and rights-compliance. As Social Platform we […]
With the launch of our position paper on the financing of social services in December 2013, we have started looking at how private sources can support the financing of social services and more broadly the social sector. We have initiated a dialogue with the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Investment Fund (EIF) as […]
On 14 June I participated in the launch of the EU High Level Group on Combating Racism, Xenophobia and other forms of Intolerance. As civil society we welcomed that we were invited to participate on equal footing with EU member states, and we hope that this practice will be replicated by other EU high level groups. Commissioner […]
On 7 June our members met over lunch to debate integration of migrants and other groups in society that are socially excluded, and what tensions and trade-offs can arise. Our members Freek Spinnewijn, Director of the European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless (FEANTSA) and Sabrina Lenoach, Migration Officer from the Red Cross […]
