Fraternité 2020 (F2020) was a

European Citizens' Initiative The European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) is a European Union (EU) mechanism aimed at increasing direct democracy by enabling "EU citizens to participate directly in the development of EU policies", introduced with the Treaty of Lisbon in 2007. The ...

initiated at the Young European Citizens' Convention, Cluny 2010. The convention was awarded French national winner of the

European Charlemagne Youth Prize The European Charlemagne Youth Prize, sometimes shortened Charlemagne Youth Prize, is a prize that has been awarded annual since 2008 jointly by the European Parliament and the Foundation of the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen. It is awa ...

in 2011. F2020's objective was to enhance EU exchange programmes such as

Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; ; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;''Erasmus'' was his baptismal name, given after St. Erasmus of Formiae. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The ''Roterodamus'' wa ...

or the

European Voluntary Service The European Solidarity Corps (ESC), known until 2016 as European Voluntary Service (EVS), is an international volunteering program by the European Commission for young people to go individually or in teams to another country, usually from one Eur ...

(EVS) to contribute to a united Europe based on solidarity among citizens. It was declared Europe's very first ECI on May 9, 2012, and boasts registration number ECI(2012)000001 in the Commission's ECI database. To be successful, it needed to collect 1 million signatures before November 1, 2013. This target was not reached. The number of signatures actually collected was 71,057.

Background

Geographic mobility Geographic mobility is the measure of how populations and goods move over time. Geographic mobility, population mobility, or more simply mobility is also a statistic that measures migration within a population. Commonly used in demography and huma ...

in the EU is considered rather low. The success of exchange programmes like Erasmus can be said to be limited, with less than 1% of all students in the EU participating in an Erasmus exchange in 2006. One factor why the Erasmus Programme is not better received by students across Europe has been suggested to be inadequate financial support. Another statistics illustrating the low geographical mobility in the EU is the share of EU citizens living in other EU countries. On average, only 2.3% of the total population of the EU27 were citizens of another EU member state in 2008.

Suggested measures

F2020 suggested three measures to increase mobility: *The Commission shall use existing EU funds more consistently to encourage mobility. Also, it shall promote more funds for exchange programmes in the future. Eventually, 10 percent of the EU budget shall be used on these programmes. *Increased efforts shall be made for participants to develop intercultural skills, e.g. by offering language classes and classes about the host country's traditions, history, society etc. *Progress in the field of mobility shall be better monitored e.g. through

Eurostat Eurostat ('European Statistical Office'; DG ESTAT) is a Directorate-General of the European Commission located in the Kirchberg, Luxembourg, Kirchberg quarter of Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. Eurostat's main responsibilities are to provide statis ...

Eurobarometer Eurobarometer is a series of public opinion surveys conducted regularly on behalf of the European Commission and other EU Institutions since 1973. These surveys address a wide variety of topical issues relating to the European Union throughout i ...

surveys.

Supporters

The initiative was supported, amongst others, by

Kalypso Nicolaïdis Kalypso Aude Nicolaïdis ( el, Καλυψώ Νικολαΐδη) is a Franco-Greek academic, currently Professor of International Relations and Director of the Center for International Studies at Oxford University, England. She teaches in the are ...

Josep Borrell Josep Borrell Fontelles (; born 24 April 1947) is a Spanish politician serving as High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy since 1 December 2019. A member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), he served ...

Giandomenico Majone Giandomenico Majone (born March 27, 1932, died July 31, 2022) was an Italian scholar of political science whose expertise was regulatory governance within the European Union (EU) as well as theories of delegation and their effect on the perceive ...

, and Arturas Bumšteinas. In terms of NGOs, the initiative was supported by inter alia AEGEE-Europe, ESN, Campus Europae and Scambieuropei. The initiative's

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

page has grown to over 15,000 supporters.

Early responses from EU Institutions

In a letter of 24 April 2011, the then EP President

Jerzy Buzek Jerzy Karol Buzek (born 3 July 1940) is a Polish politician and Member of the European Parliament from Poland. He has served as Prime Minister of Poland from 1997 to 2001, since being elected to the European Parliament in 2004, he served as Pre ...

expresses his hope that ''Fraternité 2020'' can contribute to set another step in the direction of an EU that is closer to its citizens.

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...

President

José Manuel Barroso José Manuel Durão Barroso (; born 23 March 1956) is a Portuguese politician and university teacher, currently serving as non-executive chairman of Goldman Sachs International. He previously served as the 11th president of the European Commi ...

singles out the initiative's goal to increase funds for these programmes and indicates a "substantial" increase in the next

EU budget The Budget of the European Union (EU budget) is used to finance EU funding programmes (such as the European Regional Development Fund, the Cohesion Fund, Horizon Europe, or Erasmus+) and other expenditure at the European level. The EU budget ...

Europe's very first ECI

The European Commission chose the symbolic date of May 9, 2012 (

Europe Day Europe Day is a day celebrating "peace and unity in Europe" celebrated on 5 May by the Council of Europe and on 9 May by the European Union. The first recognition of Europe Day was by the Council of Europe, introduced in 1964. The European Un ...

) to officially launch the very first ECI. This turned out to be Fraternité 2020, which was announced by Vice-President of the Commission

Maroš Šefčovič Maroš Šefčovič (; born 24 July 1966) is a Slovak diplomat and politician serving as Vice-President of the European Commission for Interinstitutional Relations since 2019, previously holding the office from 2010 to 2014. He has been member o ...

via his Twitter account already one day earlier. It was officially registered on May 9 and boasts registration number ECI(2012)000001.

Notes and references

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Fraternite 2020 Education in the European Union European Union youth policy Initiatives Politics of the European Union Student migration