On March 25th, the European Union will turn sixty; the Treaty of Rome that founded the European Community has been signed 60 years ago from now. This week, EU leaders, EU citizens and EU civil society will gather in Rome to celebrate this milestone and organise several events and demonstrations around it. CONCORD and its allies will be there too. Don’t miss the actions listed in the blogpost below.
ON EU LEADERS SIDE
On the 25th of March 2017, a European Summit will take place in Rome marking the 60th Anniversary of the Treaty of Rome. During this meeting, EU leaders will make proposals on the future of Europe, following up on the White Paper the EC launched on March 1st. The agenda and background information of that Summit are available on the Council website.
ON CIVIL SOCIETY SIDE
In the run up to this, Civil Society will be united in Rome to remind European leaders and citizens that what we need is not less Europe but a different one, embodying justice, solidarity, inclusion and sustainability, as described in our Common Statement.
Concretely, during 23-25 March several civil society events will be organised in Rome. We want to highlight the following ones:
Thursday 23 March 2017
- CONCORD #Europewewant Horizon Scanning workshop (info below)
- SOLIDAR conference “60 years of Rome Treaty: What remains of the promise of Social Europe? Progressive civil society views on how to deepen the European integration”
- Forum, initiatives and debates at the University La Sapienza. Information can be found on the website, the Facebook page, the Twitter account. We invite you to follow the hashtags #NostraEuropa #OurEurope
- Individual signatures to the appeal are also collected through WeMove.
Friday 24 March 2017
- CONCORD #Europewewant Horizon Scanning workshop (info below)
- Forum debate organised by Civil Society Europe on My Future with YOUrope from 16.00 until 18.00 at La Sapienza University.
- Climate change coalition meeting
- Flashmob for women’s’ rights
- Young European Federalists torch for Europe event
- S&D group event “Together stand up for our future!” from 15.00 until 20.30 at Rome Auditorium della Concilazione.
Saturday 25 March 2017
- Assembly of all civil society / festive event
- March of the Italian Civil Society Alliance starting at 11.00 am from Piazza Vittorio to the Colosseo.
- Stand 4 Europe March organised by the European Movement
ON CONCORD SIDE
Our constituency will meet in Rome from the 23rd to the 25th and participate in several events and mobilisations. On top, CONCORD will organise its “Horizon scanning workshop“, bringing together its members and external guests for a 2-day workshop aiming to:
- Analyse the political context and current trends;
- develop key messages on the change we want to see in Europe;
- map the power in the EU;
- analyse our ways of working and see how we can improve them;
- identify key reference policy frameworks;
- strengthen our toolbox of advocacy tools.
Registration is now closed but we will share the main outcomes with you in a couple of days.
JOINT ACTION
In parallel to all these actions, a broad group of European civil society organisations and trade unions, of which CONCORD is part, wants to voice an alternative vision for Europe. Thanks to a Joint Statement signed by +230 organisations, they have appealed to EU leaders to show courage and vision in leading the transition to a just, sustainable, democratic and inclusive Europe. We invite you all to join the #Europewewant campaign by signing the statement and share the messages on social media via #EuropeWeWant. The social media toolkit is available for everybody to join the call. More info about the statement and campaign on this blogpost.