"Our idea of Europe" is the Manifesto/appeal that Cittadinanzattiva wishes to submit to the attention of the candidates to the European Parliament Elections which will take place in May 2014.

Cittadinanzattiva is a movement of civic participation which embraced the European perspective over 10 years ago when it decided to establish a civic network at Community level to assert through practice an active European citizenship and help position it at the centre the political agenda.
Asserting an active European citizenship means pursuing and sharing the objectives and the values established in the Treaties, from which Cittadinanzattiva has drawn strength for several of its most significant activities undertaken at Community level.

Cittadinanzattiva believes in Europe and contributes to it through its activities since Europe represents an essential reference point for a civic organisation engaged for over 35 years in promoting civic participation in the protection of rights.

In the current climate of nationalist claims, improbable populist solutions and temptations to revert to the past, Cittadinanzattiva on the one hand invites citizens to go and vote and on the other proudly claims having operated for years - alongside the European and national institutions - in the long process of introduction of and education in the common currency, more and more convinced that today, without the Euro, our destiny would be even bleaker than how the heavy economic crisis gripping Europe appears to depict it.

Therefore, in order to overcome the crisis and avoid a drift which might turn the dream of a united Europe into a nightmare it is necessary that all parties involved endeavour to reach a balance between a European Union which requires to keep public finances in order through antisocial policies, apparently more attentive to concerns of a financial nature than to the worries regarding the real economy, and a society requiring that adequate levels of protection of rights be guaranteed together with social justice, development and promotion of active citizenship.

The five priority areas described in the Manifesto show in the following two recommendations their link and premise:

 Implementing "Citizen first" as the inspiring principle to guide the decisions of the European institutions. These are in fact called to give evidence of their actions throughout their mandate on the basis of this principle, the only one able to overturn the current European pyramidal structure, place citizens at the top and restore a European sense of belonging both in its true meaning and as an opportunity for higher and more sustainable standards of life;
 A constant interweaving and assimilation between European, national, regional and local levels in order to allow European citizens to develop a common understanding of the European context as a privileged arena of citizenship rights and participation, and introducing a reflection on the sense of belonging to a common European future.

"Our idea of Europe" is a common line of thought campaigned by Cittadinanzattiva both at national level – within its own organization and in coalitions– and at European level together with partner associations belonging to the European network Active Citizenship Network.

We hope that this work may be considered as a constructive contribution presented by Cittadinanzattiva to the candidates and to the European institutional decision-makers, as well as to the stakeholders who are committed to work for an ever more democratic Europe in line with the expectations of its citizens.

Download the Manifesto

Mariano Votta