Opinion of the Committee of the Regions on the Proposal for a Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the programme  Citizens for Europe  to promote active European citizenship for the period 2007-2013
Date: 2005-11-17
Institutions: European Committee of the Regions
Subjects: European citizenship, action programme, twinning

16.5.2006

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 115/81

Opinion of the Committee of the Regions on the Proposal for a Decision of the European Parlia-
ment and of the Council establishing the programme ‘Citizens for Europe’ to promote active Euro-
pean citizenship for the period 2007-2013

(2006/C 115/18)

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS

HAVING REGARD TO the Proposal for a Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council estab-
lishing the programme ‘Citizens for Europe’ to promote active European citizenship for the period 2007-
2013 (COM(2005) 116 final);

HAVING REGARD TO the decision of the European Commission of 6 April 2005 to consult it, under
articles 151, 265(1) and 308 of the ECT, on the Proposal for a Decision of the European Parliament and of
the Council establishing the programme ‘Citizens for Europe’ to promote active European citizenship for
the period 2007-2013;

HAVING REGARD TO the decision of its President of 20 January 2005 to instruct the Commission for
Constitutional Affairs and European Governance to draw up an opinion on the Proposal for a Decision of
the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the programme ‘Citizens for Europe’ to promote
active European citizenship for the period 2007-2013;

HAVING REGARD TO the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe signed on 29 October 2004, in
particular articles I-10 and III-280;

HAVING REGARD TO Council decision 2004/100/EC of 26 January 2004 establishing a Community
action programme to promote active European citizenship (civic participation) (1);

HAVING REGARD TO its opinion of 20 November 2003 on the Proposal for a Council decision estab-
lishing a Community action programme to promote active European citizenship (civic participation) and
the Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on measures to be
taken by Member States to ensure participation of all citizens of the Union to the 2004 elections to the
European Parliament in an enlarged Union (CdR 170/2003 fin (2));

HAVING REGARD TO its opinion of 21 November 2002 on the Communication from the Commission
to the Council,
the European Economic and Social Committee and the
Committee of the Regions on an information and communication strategy for the European Union
(COM(2002) 350 final) (CdR 124/2002 fin (3));

the European Parliament,

HAVING REGARD TO the fourth European Commission report on citizenship of the Union — 1 May
2001-30 April 2004 — (COM(2004) 695 final);

HAVING REGARD TO the Communication from the European Commission on Making citizenship
work: fostering European culture and diversity through programmes for Youth, Culture, Audiovisual and
Civic Participation — (COM(2004) 154 final);

HAVING REGARD TO its draft opinion (CdR 120/2005 rev. 2) adopted on 4 October 2005 by the
Commission for Constitutional Affairs and European Governance (rapporteur: Ms Claude du Granrut,
Member of Picardy Regional Council, First Deputy Mayor of Senlis (FR/EPP);

1)

2)

WHEREAS part two of the Treaty establishing the European Community has created European citi-
zenship; under Article 17 of that treaty, that citizenship complements but does not replace national
citizenship; these stipulations have been included in the Treaty establishing a Constitution for
Europe (Article I-10); moreover, this treaty includes a Title VI entitled ‘The democratic life of the
Union’;

WHEREAS citizenship is exercised first and foremost at local level; and whereas local and regional
authorities must, in line with the subsidiarity principle, play an active role in promoting it;

(1) OJ L 30, 4.2.2004, p. 6.
(2) OJ C 73, 23.3.2004, p. 46.
(3) OJ C 73, 26.3.2003, p. 46.

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3)

4)

5)

6)

WHEREAS, as the representative body of local and regional authorities and the defender of local
democracy in the Community decision-making process, it is directly concerned with the promotion
and implementation of such European citizenship;

WHEREAS, by means of the above-mentioned decision of 26 January 2004, the Council has estab-
lished a three-year Community action programme to promote active European citizenship, and
whereas the actions launched under this programme for a reference amount of EUR 72 million
must be continued;

WHEREAS, in the context of enlargement of the European Union, a special effort must be made to
promote European citizenship in the new Member States;

WHEREAS the Council of Europe has proclaimed 2005 European Year of Citizenship through
Education to highlight the importance of education in promoting and protecting human rights, and
whereas a youth summit, which demonstrated the extent to which young people who are active and
aware of their new identity are the best means of promoting active citizenship, took place in 2005
on the fringes of the third summit of the Council of Europe in Warsaw;

adopted the following opinion unanimously at
17 November 2005 (meeting of 17 November):

its 62nd plenary session, held on 16 and

1. Comments of the Committee of the Regions

and justice under the programme on fundamental rights and
citizenship for the period 2007-2013;

The Committee of the Regions

1.1
believes that the European Union has a duty to make
its citizens aware of the European dimension of their citizen-
ship;

1.2
firmly believes that the increased diversity of the Euro-
pean Union that has resulted from the accession on 1 May
2004 of ten new Member States and will result from the future
accession of other countries requires specific efforts to promote
active European citizenship in these new Member States, as
well as in the other 15, where promotion of European citizen-
ship must take account of the cultural, social and linguistic
diversity resulting from enlargement;

1.3
is concerned that Europe's citizens feel that they are
being kept at a distance from the European Union's decision-
making bodies and that they lack information, and therefore
have reservations about the political development of the Euro-
pean Union;

emphasises the key role of local and regional authori-

1.4
ties in developing active European citizenship;

1.5 welcomes the proposal for a decision establishing a
Community action programme to promote active European
citizenship with a budget of EUR 235 million for the period
2007-2013, which picks up where the 2004-2006 programme,
whose limited budget of EUR 72 million the Committee had
criticised in its above-mentioned opinion 170/2003, leaves off;

1.7
believes, on the other hand, that certain aspects of
programmes such as those concerning values common to Euro-
pean citizens and the key events in their history have a strong
citizenship dimension and belong more in the Citizens for
Europe programme;

1.8
believes that the improvement of citizen projects is
achieved by putting in place measures supporting the exchange
of best practice carried out at local and regional level;

1.9 welcomes the European Commission's efforts to hold,
as part of the drafting of this proposal, a wide-ranging public
consultation, which culminated in a consultative forum being
held on 3 and 4 February 2005, in which the Committee was
involved;

1.10
supports the priority given in the action programme
to town twinning, to which almost one-third of the budget of
the whole programme is assigned;

nonetheless notes that

to judge by the financial
1.11
perspectives of the new programme there is likely to be a
reduction in the number of projects
and is
concerned about
this on those
running projects;

the discouraging effect of

financed,

believes that

1.12
authorities
national legislation;

should also be

twinning of other local and regional
respecting

encouraged, whilst

1.6
believes that promoting citizenship is a horizontal
issue and that it must be taken into account in the European
Union's other actions; programmes adopted in the areas of
education, culture and youth must thus include a citizenship
dimension, as must actions launched by DG Freedom, security

1.13
believes that cross-border areas, which are in contact
with several national cultures, hold the greatest potential for
the development of a European identity, and supports the
discussions that have been started, inter alia at DG Regio on
the implementation of structures for cross-border cooperation
to include the citizenship dimension;

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1.14
supports the principle of opening the programme to
EFTA countries, signatory countries to the EEA agreement,
candidate countries with a pre-accession strategy, and to coun-
tries of the Western Balkans in line with the conclusions of the
Thessaloniki European Council of 19 and 20 June 2003, but
regrets that the proposal for a decision does not take into
account EU citizens who live outside the EU;

1.15
and stresses that priority should be given to these projects;

approves of support for active civil society in Europe

1.16
underscores the value of an active long-term informa-
tion and communication policy, which it prefers over the
systematic organisation of high-profile events that do not
always provide a significant return;

1.17 welcomes the efforts being made to lighten the
burden of red tape for beneficiaries, whilst abiding by the rele-
vant financial rules, which have room for improvement;

1.18 welcomes the proposed monitoring and evaluation
process, in particular the publication of three reports in 2010,
2011 and 2015, but regrets that no interim evaluation of the
2004-2006 three-year programme is yet available;

2. The Committee of the Regions' recommendations

The Committee of the Regions:

hopes that the European Parliament and the Council
2.1
will adopt this decision without delay in order to ensure conti-
nuity of the activities currently taking place under the 2004-
2006 three-year programme;

calls on the European Commission to include considera-
2.2
tion of the citizenship dimension in all its proposals, in particu-

Brussels, 17 November 2005.

lar those that affect education, culture, youth and the protec-
tion of fundamental rights, and to transfer some aspects of
other programmes to this programme when their main aim is
to promote citizenship;

2.3
believes that the projected funding must be revised
upwards and given a specific budget heading for the promotion
of active European citizenship in the new Member States;

2.4
emphasises the need for town twinning to increase and
proposes that other local and regional authorities be encour-
aged to twin and to get involved in existing twinning arrange-
ments by drawing on the best practices that have already been
identified;

hopes

2.5
promoting European citizenship in cross-border areas;

that particular

attention will be paid to

requests that a debate be launched on the means of
2.6
promoting European citizenship among EU citizens living
outside the EU;

encourages a long-term information and communica-
inter alia targeted at young people, and whose

2.7
tion policy,
European origin should be clearly identifiable;

2.8

requests that efforts to reduce red tape be continued;

hopes that local and regional administrations will act as

2.9
channels in the information and communication policy;

2.10
proposes that a recommendation be drawn up aimed
at promoting education in European citizenship at schools and
universities under the auspices of the European Commission
and with the involvement of the Committee as the representa-
tive of education authorities.

The President

of the Committee of the Regions

Peter STRAUB