CITIZENS’ INITIATIVE

The important role of the European Union in the day-to-day lives of its citizens is often underestimated. And yet, given the EU’s status as a major international organisation, its decisions have a great impact on politics, economics and culture in France. By gaining an understanding of how the EU functions and how citizens can participate in its work, students can better appreciate both the role of the EU and their own rights as European citizens.

As a complementary approach of the schools programs, the R EU CONNECTED, as part of the Erasmus + project helps schools and colleges work on a better understanding of our contemporary world. The objective of this program is to give the students keys to make the European citizenship their own. It offers the students a three-session course to understand EU decision-making process, discover and the European Citizens’ Initiatives (ECI) and to develop their public speaking and debating skills.

The activity, designed for students of secondary and high school, is structured as following:
– The first step, animated by a specialist of Europe, takes place in class and consists of a pedagogical presentation of the functioning of the European Union and the role of institutions. A specialist of theatre will teach students how to do a speech and talk in front of a crowd.
– The second step, animated by a specialist of Europe, takes place in class and consists of the discovery of an European directive (environment, migration). The students will form groups and experience parliamentary work. They will have to argue about this directive and propose amendments.
– The third step is dedicated to the organization of a Decoders event. The students will have to organize this event by themselves: collect questions, organize the event, prepare a communication plan.
– The fourth step is the Decoders event (link to the page decodeurs event).

In this webpage you will find a lot of useful material to run the workshops in 6 different languages.