Mit arbejde i Den Europæiske Ungdomsbevægelse i Toulouse | Odense Bibliotekerne

Today I will write about one of my responsibilities in the Young Europeans movement of Toulouse, I was in charge of the promotion of the “European cities label” in the Occitanie region. This label was co-created in 2020 during the campaign of the municipal elections by the Young Europeans France (which is part of the NGO Young Europeans Europe), the European Movement France and the Union of European Federalists: the main idea is to make the cities engaged to promote European policies, to help them in their engagement, and to bring the European spirit in our cities and villages. Whatever their size or budget, to develop information on the EU and its policies, the promotion of linguistic and cultural diversity and the active participation of the local population. and cultural diversity and the active participation of citizens in the various awareness-raising events.

This label is also a citizen's tool for evaluating municipal policies, as well as a visibility device for the initiatives you will carry out in favor of an active European citizenship. When a city signs the charter of the “European city label”, it shows their intention to promote their European actions and it recognizes its former activities: the agreement could be understand like a partnership between the local authorities and the movement to improve the collaboration in the future.

Basically, the actions are divided into four main themes. Firstly, the pedagogy for municipalities that accompany the inhabitants in the understanding of the European Union. Secondly, the cooperation for municipalities that commit themselves to carry out European projects European projects associating the local associative fabric and other European cities. Thirdly, the citizenship for municipalities that integrate citizens from another Member State into local life other Member State to local life. And then the culture for municipalities to keep the European spirit alive through leisure activities.

During this charge, I tried to build a list of contacts and to target the potential cities: there’s a lot which already input a European dimension in their local policies, it’s important to know which could be interested or not. The process could be detailed into three parts: contacting the city members who oversee this aspects and getting an appointment with them, then convincing them of our projects – through propositions, examples of our activities, etc. - and finally signing the agreement to make them engage and being new partners. Sometimes, we made an activity in their city to show them what we do, like a pedagogic stand or helping them in of their project.

For example, I helped the youth municipal council of Cugnaux – in the Toulouse urban area – in their project of writing a charter which was entitled “parity ambition”. For me, this was a great way to learn about the local policies of cities around me and to learn how to interact with local authorities. Many of the places where people are talking and debating about Europe is in the big cities, I think that it’s also important to go to the medium and little-sized cities to don’t let them outside of this subjects which affects them in their daily life as much as for the metropolitans. In our network of 5 partner cities (including the huge city of Toulouse), two signed during my mandate and we are in negotiation with three others: this work takes time because it is important to be patient to be confident with the local authorities.