Emerge

EMERGE is aimed at testing and promoting innovative methodologies for transnational mobility and for mentoring processes between Italian Bulgarian and Romanian NGOs. Given a lack of people’s awareness and participation as European citizens, new strategies to involve them in the EU policy processes, increasing their sense of European identity and reducing the hidden ground of exclusion are to be developed. The EMERGE core is the mobility of researchers among the 3 organisations, combined with the capacity of each organisation to establish a national network of associations representing the common good of disadvantaged groups. This is the way to start a process of shared analysis and control of the European legislative process concerning poverty and social exclusion, with a raising of people’s awareness of their history as EU citizens. Activities will move from an initial phase of recollection and analysis of materials related to each European election campaign the partners have hosted (2009 for Bulgaria and Romania, 1979-2009 for Italy) and the documents related to the consequent legislative activity in the European Parliament in the field of poverty and social exclusion. According to a blended mentoring approach, the partners will develop on-site (with a 2 weeks intensive training session in Rome) and on-line activities of exchange of knowledge and practices, aimed at producing monthly news on the EP work on themes of poverty and exclusion, to be distributed to the citizens, together with the defining of Guidelines for the EU political parties. This will be the basis for a shared model of: understanding of the political platforms concerning poverty and social exclusion expressed in the occasion of the 2009 EU elections; controlling the legislative activity of the EP in the project period; elaborating the data and information to produce tools for the civil society and the EU institutions for activating the European citizenship and combating poverty and exclusion.