Fraternity 2020

Fraternité 2020 (F2020) was a European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) that was launched in 2010 at the Convention des Jeunes Citoyens Européens (Meeting of Young European Citizens) in Cluny ( France ). In 2011 the conference was awarded the International Charlemagne Prize of the City of Aachen . The aim of F2020 was to improve European exchange programs such as the Erasmus program or the European Voluntary Service (EVS) and thus contribute to a united Europe and more solidarity among citizens. The initiative was announced as the first ECI (European Citizens' Initiative) on May 9, 2012 and entered in the ECI database under the ECI number ECI (2012) 000001. To be successful, it would have had to collect a million signatures by November 1, 2013. In fact, only 71,057 EU citizens ultimately signed the initiative. It is therefore considered to have failed.

background

Geographical mobility within Europe is currently viewed as rather low. The success of exchange programs like Erasmus is rather low. In 2006, less than 1% of all students in the EU took part in an Erasmus exchange. One reason why the Erasmus program is not better accepted by European students is seen in the inadequate financial support. Another indication of the low mobility is the small number of EU citizens living in another EU country. In 2008, on average only 2.3% of the total EU27 citizens lived in another Member State.

Goals of the initiative

F2020 proposed three measures to increase mobility:

The Commission should use existing funds more consistently to promote mobility. In addition, she should advocate more funding for EU exchange programs in the future. After all, 10 percent of the EU budget should go to these programs.

Greater efforts should be made to ensure that participants develop intercultural skills, for example by offering language courses and courses on the traditions, history, society, etc. of the host country.

Progress in mobility should be better monitored, e.g. B. by Eurostat or Eurobarometer surveys.

advancement

The initiative was supported, among others, by Kalypso Nicolaïdis, Josep Borrell , Giandomenico Majone, Arturas Bumšteinas, Martin Heidenreich from the University of Oldenburg, Johannes W. Pichler from the Austrian Institute for European Legal Policy, Frank Schimmelfennig from the ETH Zurich and numerous members of the European University Institute . As far as NGOs are concerned, the initiative was supported by the European Student Forum AEGEE , the Erasmus Student Network , Scambieuropei, the Association of European Electrical Engineers EESTEC and the Industrial Engineers ESTIEM , the youth of the European People's Party , the European Cultural Parliament, the Europa-Union Germany , the Cultural Foundation of the Allianz , the European movement supports. The initiative's Facebook page has around 15,000 supporters.

First reactions from the EU institutions

In a letter dated April 24, 2011, the then President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek expressed his hope that Fraternité 2020 could contribute to taking another step towards an EU closer to its citizens. The European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso raised the aim of the initiative appears to increase funding for Mobiliätsprogramme and indicated a "substantial" increase in the next EU budget to.

Europe's first ECI

The European Commission chose the symbolic date of May 9, 2012 ( Europe Day ) for the official start of the first ECI. This was Fraternité 2020, as the Vice-President of the Commission Maroš Šefčovič announced on his Twitter account the day before. It was officially registered on May 9th and was given registration number ECI (2012) 000001.

Individual evidence

↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from March 13, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2
↑ Simona Pronckutė: European Citizens Initiatives - one year of challenges . EuropeanPublicAffairs.eu. November 1, 2013. Retrieved August 20, 2014.
↑ Bonin, H., W. Eichhorst, C. Florman, MO Hansen, L. Skiöld, J. Stuhler, K. Tatsiramos, H. Thomasen, and KF Zimmermann. "Geographic mobility in the European Union: Optimizing its economic and social benefits." IZA Research Reports (2008). Available from: http://www.iza.org/en/webcontent/publications/reports/report_pdfs/iza_report_19.pdf
↑ Statistical Office of the European Union. Statistical information on the Erasmus program (EN), available at: Archive link ( Memento of the original from August 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. More information at: http://ec.europa.eu/education/erasmus/statistics_en.htm @1@ 2
^ West, A. / E. Barham: "Student mobility, qualifications and academic recognition in the EU", in: ' Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice 16' , No. 1 (2009): 25-37.
↑ Vasileva, Katya: “Citizens of European countries account for the majority of the foreign population in EU-27 in 2008”, in: ' Eurostat Statistic in Focus' , No. 94 (2009). Available at (EN): Archive link ( Memento of the original from June 22, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2
↑ http://ec.europa.eu/citizens- ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. initiative / public / initiatives / ongoing / details / 2012/000001? lg = de@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / ec.europa.eu