39 Amendments of Sylvie GUILLAUME related to 2015/2329(INI)
Amendment 3 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 5 a (new)
Citation 5 a (new)
Amendment 6 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas the Europe for Citizens programme is a unique and highly symbolic programme, as it is a listening exercise on civil society’s debate and it stimulates critical thinking abouton the European project;
Amendment 7 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas the Europe for Citizens programme is a unique and highly symbolic programme, as it is a listening exercise on civil society’s debate and critical thinking about the European project, its history and that of the movements and ideas that have promoted it;
Amendment 14 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas the Europe for Citizens programme aims to strengthen a sense of European citizenship, enhance mutual tolerance and promote a better understanding of the EU, of its origin and development, values, institutions, competencies and policies developed for the benefit of its citizens;
Amendment 16 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
Ba. whereas the one euro per citizen campaign for the Europe for citizens programme aims at sending a strong symbolic message about listening to citizens' voice in Europe;
Amendment 25 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas the current rise of ‘Euroscepticism’ – which culminated recently in the vote in favour of Brexit – reinforces the need to encourage civic participation and to launch an in-depth debate on European values and training campaign on the functioning of EU institutions, while highlighting the opportunities brought about by belonging to the EU;
Amendment 36 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E a (new)
Recital E a (new)
Ea. whereas active citizenship, education for citizenship and intercultural dialogue are key to building open, inclusive and resilient societies;
Amendment 38 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F
Recital F
F. whereas the current programme is founded on Article 352 TFEU, which only gave Parliament the right to express its position under the consent procedure and was vigorously contested by Parliament at the time the proposal was submitted by the Commission as it stands in strong contradiction with the democratic nature of the programme;
Amendment 44 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H a (new)
Recital H a (new)
Ha. whereas it can be noted that Member States tends to disengage from the co-financing of these projects and that local authorities find themselves in difficulties when it comes to European projects with high co-financing rates;
Amendment 47 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I a (new)
Recital I a (new)
Ia. whereas non-formal and informal learning, as well as volunteering, sport, arts and culture, provide many opportunities for citizenship education and active citizenship;
Amendment 69 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Notes that, owing to budgetary constraints, the total number of funded projects is too small to achieve the programme’s ambitious goals and that only around 6 % of the European Remembrance and Civil Society projects were able to be financed in 2015, which is very low in comparison to, ending up in generating more frustration than enthusiasm among those Creative Europe programme results for the same year (19.64 % for Culture and 45.6 % for MEDIA)sponsible for projects, having deleterious effects on the image of the programme itself; indicates that the funding for these two strands of the Europe for Citizens programme should be substantially increased in order to reach the objective of 1,000 projects per year;
Amendment 78 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Highlights the fact that the Europe for Citizens’ National Contact Points (NCPs) have an important role in raising awareness and providing support and guidance to potential applicants (in particular first-time applicants in target countries), as well as European and national associations of local and regional government and civil society organisations;
Amendment 85 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Acknowledges the fact that the impact of the programme remains proportionally high, as is shown by the fact that in 2015 an estimated 1 100 000 participants were involved in the 408 projects selected; considers also that the high number of applications – 2 087 in 2014 and 2 791 in 2015 – and the quality of projects indicate a high level of interest in the programme, and the need for the EU to dedicate more resources to the programme in order to increase the number of projects supported;
Amendment 86 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 3
Subheading 3
Amendment 88 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 3 b (new)
Subheading 3 b (new)
Financial aspect of implementation
Amendment 93 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. CRegarding the decisive role played by this programme as a prerequisite for citizens' participation in the democratic life of the Union, considers that, given the low rate of success of the European Remembrance and Civil Society projects in the Europe for Citizens programme (6 %), as against 19.64 % for Culture and 45.6 % for MEDIA in the Creative Europe programme), a 60 % substantial increase in the current budget would be necessary in order to achieve a higher target rate of 20 % of funded projects; calls, therefore, on the Commission, the Council and the Member States to consider a total financial envelope of approximately EUR 3500 million for the Europe for Citizens programme under the next MFF, which only represent 1 € per citizen;
Amendment 102 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Recommends that another source of funding be found for the Europe for Citizens Initiative (ECI), which is currently financed under the Europe for Citizens budget and asks Member States to be more involved in the financial support to these projects;
Amendment 107 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Underlines that operating grants guarantee independence to beneficiaries (i.e. Think Tanks) and offer the possibility of long-term planning to realise vision- oriented activities and to develop expertise; recommends the use of specific criteria, indicators and annual reporting to monitor progress towards their goals and, to make sure that these funding schemes do not lead to the beneficiary’s dependency on the Commission, and possibly limit its support up to 50% of the budget of beneficiary organisations;
Amendment 110 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Calls on the Commission to gather together all useful information regarding the Europe for Citizens programme (programme guide, priorities, calls for proposals, ongoing and past projects, outcome and lessons learned, newsletter), along with all the programmes, actions, grants and structural funds that come under the umbrella of European citizenship (such as the European Citizens’ Initiative and the European Voluntary Service), in a unique, user-friendly communication portal (one- stop-shop online platform), also accessible to persons with disabilities; recommends that this platform should be used as a public register of the beneficiaries’ contact details and as a tool to access the projects’ descriptions and to find partners in other countries;
Amendment 111 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 a (new)
Paragraph 13 a (new)
13a. Recommends as well the creation of an online platform for the main organisations working in the field of citizenship and benefiting from the programme in order to pool good practices, reinforce capacities and strengthen visibility once projects finish;
Amendment 115 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Calls on the Commission to implement an engaging communication strategy for European citizenship by using social networks, constantly updating the content and reaching new audiences in the participating countries, especially those in which the level of participation is lower, in particular young people, persons with disabilities and vulnerable people;
Amendment 116 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Calls on the Commission to implement an engaging communication strategy for European citizenship by using social networks, reinforcing local engagement in the programme and constantly updating the content and reaching new audiences in the participating countries, especially those in which the level of participation is lower;
Amendment 121 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 a (new)
Paragraph 15 a (new)
15a. Calls on the Commission to increase even more its efforts on the administrative simplification, considering that formal requirements are sometimes difficult to overcome for particularly small organisations that should not be discriminated against for bureaucratic reasons;
Amendment 124 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 a (new)
Paragraph 16 a (new)
16a. Calls the Commission and the EACEA to publicly account for the expenses incurred through strand 3 on Horizontal Action - Valorisation - Analysis, dissemination and use of project results;
Amendment 129 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Welcomes the strong focus on citizens and societal aspects of the EU, allowing EU institutions to directly engage with civil society on the ground; highlights within the priorities of the programme the importance of projects focused on current challenges for Europe, on issues such as migration, refugees, social inclusion and intercultural dialogue, management of diversity, intercultural dialogue, and the identification of the common European cultural legacy;
Amendment 132 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Welcomes the strong focus on citizens and societal aspects of the EU, allowing EU institutions to directly engage with civil society on the ground; highlights within the priorities of the programme the importance of projects focused on current challenges for Europe, on issues such as migration, social inclusion and intercultural dialogue; invites the Commission and Member States to strengthen the links between the programme's priorities and the policies linked to European citizenship as well as the daily life of European citizens;
Amendment 133 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 a (new)
Paragraph 18 a (new)
18a. Argues that the programme should reach out to a wider range of participants, guarantee the participation of people with special needs, promote the participation of marginalised and disenfranchised people, including migrants, refugees and asylum people;
Amendment 134 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 b (new)
Paragraph 18 b (new)
18b. Stresses the need to guarantee a gender balance in participants and to take into account the gender perspective when selecting projects;
Amendment 135 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 c (new)
Paragraph 18 c (new)
18c. Is of the opinion that, where relevant, the programme should build on existing successful grassroots initiatives such as town twinning;
Amendment 141 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19
Paragraph 19
19. Stresses the need to develop – within the ‘European Remembrance’ strand – a European identity that should be plural, transcultural, dynamic, and cosmopolitan, open to migration flows and the influences from the rest of the world, oriented towards the future and not only the past, with a view to achieving common secular integration;
Amendment 144 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19
Paragraph 19
19. Stresses the need to develop – within the ‘European Remembrance’ strand – a European identity that should be oriented towards the future and not only the past, with a view to achieving common secular integration; in this perspective it is important, when learning about the past, to ensure heritage and history is not used as a divisive tool but as an opportunity to address contemporary challenges through sensitive interpretation and skilful, targeted education programmes;
Amendment 148 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19 a (new)
Paragraph 19 a (new)
19a. Stresses the need to encourage projects presenting new formats of discussion with citizens, in an attractive format and style, presenting multidimensional approach;
Amendment 149 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19 b (new)
Paragraph 19 b (new)
19b. Proposes the yearly publication by the Commission of a synthetic report containing the main proposals for the improvement of the European construction that are voiced by the participants in the projects financed by the "Europe for the Citizens" programme;
Amendment 151 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20
20. Stresses the need to enrich the programme with proposals regarding citizens’ participation in the democratic process and in EU decision-making, in a way that contributes to empowering citizens to make use of their rights, for instance through the implementation of e- democracy;
Amendment 153 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20
20. Stresses the need to enrich the programme with proposals regarding citizens’ participation in the democratic process and in EU decision-making, for instance through the implementation of e- democracy; in order to do this, the Union and its Member States should develop actions and policies for strengthening transferable, critical, creative thinking skills and digital and media literacy, inclusion and curiosity of their citizens, especially children and youth, so that they will be able to make informed decisions and contribute positively to democratic processes;
Amendment 158 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21
Paragraph 21
21. Recommends more internationalisation of the programme and proposes to promote cooperation between organisations in the EU and in neighbouring countries on the European values;
Amendment 160 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 6
Subheading 6
Amendment 161 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22
Paragraph 22
Amendment 163 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22
Paragraph 22
22. Recommends that the next generation of the Europe for Citizens programme should be adopted with a legal base enabling Parliament to be involved in the adoption of the programme as a co- legislator under the ordinary legislative procedure, on equal footing with the Council; encourages the Commission to think of possible solutions to achieve this objective, and considers it to be a necessary precondition for any future discussion with the European Parliament on that matter;