On the 15th of June, the ECI Task Force had an open Skype meeting, where all interested AEGEE members could ask their questions about this initiative to the members working on it. To recap: the ECI was launched on the 6th of October 2016 to call upon the European Commission to support EU member states in their responsibility to provide for civic education in school curricula, as an important tool for a democratic society. One million signatures are needed before the Commission takes our call into account.

Why does the ECI not even have as many signatures as AEGEE members?

First of all, not every AEGEE member is able to sign the ECI, only EU citizens can sign. In order to enable non-EU citizens to express their support with the ECI, there is a petition created, however these signatures don’t count in the necessary one million.

A second reason is that it is impossible to communicate with all AEGEE members. We tried all channels that exist (Facebook, mailing lists, The AEGEEan, Europe on Track and other projects, conferences, statutory events, NWM, soon SUs), however, even with the help of NetCom, we faced difficulties in convincing boards to inform their members about the ECI. Of course we also cannot force members to sign.

Lastly, it is important to note that the signature registration system is very little user-friendly and requires extensive private data from the signatories, which may dissuade people to sign. This can be an additional reason.

Still, we believe that we had an impact on the Network: many people (at least those active on the European level) learnt about the ECI and acquired more understanding and awareness about civic education.

How is it possible that other ECI manage to collect one million signatures within a few months and we are not able to?

In contrast to AEGEE, the NGOs behind those ECIs have much more financial resources and they do huge PR campaigns. It is estimated that one signature equals one euro…this is a lot of money which AEGEE cannot afford. This is also why, for the team, reaching the one million signatures is not a goal in itself, but we use the ECI as a framework to do other, more fun activities about ECI, like the hitchhiking competition.

Another reason might be that successful ECIs often have a more comprehensive and actual claim, such as drinking water for everyone or saving the environment. We figured out that “Improve Civic Education in Europe” is not something that many people perceive as an urgent topic, to begin with because many people don’t know what the notion of ‘civic education’ actually means. If you have to explain why your topic is important, it is much more difficult to convince people to sign.

Isn’t the fact that we have just a few signatures collected damaging the image of AEGEE externally?

First of all, AEGEE is supporting the ECI and it is managed by AEGEE members as part of the Action Agenda. But officially it’s not AEGEE’s ECI because legally it can only be seven citizens (not an association) running it.

To come to the question, we noticed that in Brussels our ECI is not perceived in a negative way by other NGOs. Instead we get a lot of positive feedback from big stakeholders who acknowledge the fact that we run this ECI only with volunteer power.

Because of the ECI we contacted and cooperated with various external partners, not only about the ECI but about civic education in general. Our members were invited to be present or even to speak at different events. These contacts are also valuable for future projects.

Aside from our ECI about civic education, there is also the experience with the tool of ECI itself. External partners are aware of the flaws that ECI has as a tool in general. That’s why it’s not a shame to not reach one million signatures. And because we have this personal experience with a ECI, we are contacted often regarding the improvement of ECI as a tool. The European Commission just started a consultation process about ECI revision, so this topic is high on the agenda in Brussels and our opinion about it will definitely be heard.

Having all these points summarised, we don’t believe that the ECI damages AEGEE’s image, rather that it’s a great opportunity to have a long-term impact on direct democracy in Europe by helping to improve the tool.

Why did we start an ECI without having someone with campaigning expertise?

For about one year (between Oct 2015 and Oct 2016) we could not focus on campaigning because we had to figure out all the legal and technical issues that come with ECI registration. After having the ECI registered, we were looking for someone experienced in campaigning to become part of our team. But not even with offering an Erasmus + internship opportunity we managed to find such a person.

In the end, AEGEE is an association of volunteers. Therefore we can never be sure that we will find the appropriate human resources.

Besides, campaigning is not our main focus. We focus more on promoting awareness about the importance of civic education in Europe. Again, reaching one million signatures was never a goal in itself for us. However we admit that we could have better communicated this to the Network, who might have the impression that a ECI that doesn’t reach the necessary signatures is not a successful one. For us, the ECI has provided great opportunities and that’s why we already perceive it as a success.

What will happen until and after the ECI ends in October 2017?

Several activities are planned. Different SU’s will have a session about our ECI. There are also the travelling tablets, with two tablets striving to visit as many European cities as possible and collecting signatures along the way.

After the end of the ECI, on October 6th, we will still be involved in the ECI revision process. There is a consultation going on and they will organise different conferences regarding this where we are invited as relevant stakeholders, especially a conference in the European Parliament.

Written by European Citizens’ Initiative “More than Education” Task Force

One of the aims of our organisation is to foster educating members able to think critically and outside the box, but at the same time to understand the political reality and society, therefore the importance of civic education. During the planning part of EPM Burgos in 2015, the idea to start a campaign to strenghten the teaching of civic education was first proposed and it later developed into the “More than education- European Citizens’ Initiative”. We spoke to Maria Maris, AEGEE- Cluj-Napoca and currently the CD assistant on communication, and she gave us a useful, clear and short guide to it. 

The AEGEEan: Why Civic Education?

Maria: For us, civic education means learning critical thinking, political participation and open-mindedness. Civic education is the attempt to teach and show people how the world works, so they can become active and responsible citizens. Also, AEGEE is doing non-formal civic education [she smiles, ed.]. Didn’t we become more active and responsible citizens because of AEGEE?

What is the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) ?

The European Citizens’ Initiative is the 1st and ONLY tool for direct democracy in the European Union! ECI means collecting 1.000.000 signatures in one year throughout Europe from at least seven EU Member States. People have the chance to participate directly in the development of EU policies. With their signature, citizens call on the European Commission to make a legislative proposal about a certain topic – in this case improving civic education in the whole Europe!

Why did you decide to have this campaign?

To put it clear out there: civic education is the way to a functional democracy.

We strongly believe that a democracy relies, for its legitimacy, on active and responsible citizens. We all know that at the heart of democracy are people. This should make it clear that a democracy can only function and be successful if citizens are active and involved in their societies. Teaching civic competences at school is crucial for a democratic society.

Civic education in Europe is currently insufficient and incoherent. Therefore, teaching civic competences should be strengthened and coordinated throughout Europe.

That is why “More Than Education” calls on the European Commission to set up a long-term agenda for coordinating civic education among EU members states, create benchmarks, offer space for exchanging best practices, strengthen financial support programmes for consultation and networking projects in civic education policy, organise periodic evaluation and, all in all, support member states in their responsibility of providing civic education. Shortly: bring all EU member states to talk and work together on civic education and make civic education more popular in the EU.

And of course… Because it is awesome!

The idea to launch an European Citizens’ Initiative  was included in AEGEE’s Action Agenda during the European Planning Meeting in Burgos in February 2015. Civic education is one of the four focus areas of AEGEE and starting an ECI supports the aim of setting civic education on the political agenda at all levels.

Who is part of the task force?

We currently have a team of 20 people that work on different tasks and subteams. Maybe it is important to mention that besides external relations, PR, FR and so on we have the national coordinators. They are responsible for the strategy of collecting signatures, making new partners and recruiting and coordinating ambassadors for the ECI in their own country. Currently, we are looking for more national coordinators. If anyone is interested and want to have more information about it, please contact us at contact@morethaneducation.eu.

What can locals do to join this initiative?

Here you can find a useful document with all the guidelines for locals.

To sum up:

#WHAT – We want to put civic education on the European political agenda.

#CivicEducation – means learning the competencies, i.e. skills, knowledge and attitudes, required to be an active, democratic and responsible citizen.

#WHY – without education there is no real democracy.

#HOW – By collecting 1.000.000 signatures for ECI.

#ECI – The European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) allows one million EU citizens to participate directly in the development of EU policies, by calling on the European Commission to make a legislative proposal.

#WhatYOUcando!

#SIGN the ECI

#LIKE us

#Donate www.morethaneducation.eu/donate/

#Collect signatures!

#Promote the ECI in your local

#Be part of the ECI Task Force

#Be CIVIC and EDUCATED!

Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Verona