These projects will gather a diverse range of people from different backgrounds and genders in activities directly linked to EU policies, giving them an opportunity to actively participate in the EU policymaking process and thus contribute to the democratic and civic life of the Union. The projects will encourage citizens’, including young persons, understanding of the policymaking process, showing in practice how to engage in the democratic life of the EU and enabling them to make known and publicly exchange their views in all areas of Union action.

The call provides an opportunity to broadly cover a variety of policy areas and contribute to the promotion of EU values, the rule of law, gender equality, fundamental rights and democracy.

Projects should support democratic participation, including by stimulating and organising reflection, debates or other activities. They should also propose practical solutions that can be implemented through cooperation or coordination at European level, support the sharing of good practices, and ensure a practical link with the policymaking process. While maintaining a bottom-up approach, there will be a focus on the priorities outlined below. Each project application under the call must address only one of these priorities:

Priority 1 – Promoting exchanges on future Union policy priorities and challenges

This priority encourages discussions and exchanges among citizens and other stakeholders on the future of the European Union and its policies to support democratic institutions and processes. Citizens will be given an opportunity to express what kind of Europe they want and to outline their long term vision for the future of European integration.

The goal is to foster a deeper understanding of the EU’s priorities and democratic challenges, and to gather input and ideas from citizens on how to address them while boosting citizen engagement in the democratic life of the Union and on topics that matter to them. The ultimate aim of projects is to promote a greater sense of belonging to the European Union and of EU values.

Examples of activities that could be supported under this priority include:

• Organising public debates, workshops, or conferences on specific EU policy areas.
• Using online platforms or social media campaigns to engage citizens in discussions on EU policies and priorities.
• Developing educational materials or toolkits to engage and help citizens understand EU policies and their impact on daily life.
• Facilitating exchanges between citizens from different EU countries to share experiences and perspectives on EU policies.

Priority 2 – Countering disinformation, information manipulation and interference in the democratic debate

Citizens should be able to access a variety of verifiable information in order to be able to participate in an informed way in public debates and express their will through free and fair democratic processes. The spread of online disinformation and misinformation can have a range of consequences, such as threatening our democracies, polarising debates, and putting the health, security and environment of EU citizens at risk. The EU is tackling the spread of online disinformation and misinformation to ensure the protection of European values and democratic systems.
The aim of this priority is to fund projects tackling disinformation and other forms of interference in the democratic debate, empowering citizens to make informed decisions by helping them to identify disinformation and promoting media literacy, raising awareness and informing on how to safeguard the free formation of opinion and fundamental freedoms, and contributing to identify, prevent and mitigate risks of interference on sovereignty, values and interests of Member States and the EU. These will also help fight against fake news, hate speech, including gender-based hate such as misogyny, and populist discourse in media, including social media Therefore, this priority supports activities that promote democratic resilience by promoting best practices, knowledge exchange, critical thinking, and media literacy, in order to counter disinformation, information manipulation and interference in the democratic debate.

Examples of activities that could be supported under this priority include:

• Engaging citizens in developing and disseminating tools, knowledge exchange platforms, and resources to help citizens prebunk, detect and debunk disinformation and information manipulation.
• Organising media literacy training programs and/or implementing toolkits for citizens, particularly for young people, helping them critically evaluate online information.
• Engaging citizens in public awareness campaigns to highlight the risks of disinformation and information manipulation and encourage the responsible use of AI.
• Organising trainings, exchanges of best practices, engaging relevant actors in reporting and monitoring of Strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) and actions supporting independent media outlets and journalists against SLAPPs.

Priority 3 – Promoting citizens’ active engagement and democratic participation

This priority aims to instil a lasting culture of participative democracy and encourage citizens to take an active role in representative democracy, by supporting turnout in elections of all groups of society or participating in decision-making, engaging in civic activities, and exercising rights and responsibilities as EU citizens.

Examples of activities that could be supported under this priority include:

• Developing and facilitating citizen-led initiatives through debates, voicing opinions, and other citizens’ engagement activities.
• Developing, implementing and disseminating educational programs or materials to teach citizens about their rights and responsibilities as EU citizens, and how to participate in democratic processes Supporting free, fair and inclusive electoral processes by conducting awareness campaigns, engagement programmes, workshop, conferences.
• Supporting the development of tools and platforms to facilitate citizen engagement and participation in decision-making.
• Facilitating cooperation between citizens and public authorities, including local councillors, to promote participatory democracy.

Activities that can be funded (scope)
Projects should gather people from different countries and different backgrounds in activities directly linked to EU policies. The projects should provide an opportunity for direct participation in the policymaking process and thus create the conditions for a stronger bottom-up approach and a more inclusive policymaking process, fostering civic and democratic engagement.

Projects are expected to:

• have diversified partnerships, with the civil society sector and cooperation with public authorities, including local or regional authorities, playing a prominent role.
• include different organisation types (i.e. non-profit organisations, including civil society organisations, educational, cultural or research institutions, public local/ regional authorities or universities).
• have a European dimension and be implemented on a transnational level (involving the creation and operation of transnational partnerships and networks).