“Get involved. Participate for Europe and your Town” is the claim of INTACT Project Summer School that will take place in Strasbourg from Wednesday 20th to Saturday 23rd, 2011. Young participants from five European countries will meet at the Summer School of ALDA’s project INTACT. The Summer School will treat the issues of youth involvement and democracy on local and European level.
This event has a double aim: on the one hand to improve the knowledge and to boost the discussion of the participants about issues like European values and political participation. On the other hand, they will develop ideas and activities to bridge the democratic gap and think about how to encourage young people to become more active both locally and at EU level.
It will bring together citizens from local communities across Europe in order to promote mutual understanding, learning about other cultures in Europe and the emergence of a European identity to complement local and regional ones.
The programme includes working groups to deepen these topics and a simulation of the European Parliament to make participants familiar with EU institutions. An added value of the Summer School will be given by the participation of representatives of the Municipality of Strasbourg, the Council of Europe and the director of the Association of Local Democracy Agencies. Moreover, the participants will visit the European Parliament, where MEP Rainer Wieland will welcome them. Participants will thus learn about the main aspects of the Summer School as democratic principles, active citizenship and local democracy.
The Summer School is part of a European project setting up a network of towns on town twinning and active citizenship (INTACT). This project is led by the Association of Local Democracy Agencies (ALDA) and unites partners from seven European countries (Bulgaria, Croatia, France, Italy, Malta, Republic of Macedonia and Romania). One of its aims is to create and strengthen the links between participating towns, particularly involved in citizen participation issues and the promotion of EU values in the process of EU integration.
The Summer School is financially supported by the European Commission in the framework of the “Europe for Citizens” programme, the Municipality of Strasbourg and the Crédit Mutuel.