GroundUp

From the GroundUp: Fostering Rural Youth Participation in the EU Agenda is a Network of Towns in the framework of the programme CERV. It is an initiative originating from a group of partnered Local Action Groups, supported by municipalities and non-for-profit civil society organizations from 14 EU Member States. The project activities are planned for 21 months, from January 2024 to September 2025. The goal is to actively engage and also to empowering our local citizens from rural and peripheral areas in Europe, especially young people, in the EU-related and local democratic processes – i.e. GroundUp. We consider the upcoming European Elections 2024 as a momentum not only for European politics, but also as a process that will heavily impact the lives of citizens from rural and peripheral areas that we represent. Also new phenomena that are challenging the integrity of elections (hate speech, disinformation, fake news, misleading content, cybersecurity threats, conservative shifts, political resentments), are affecting the life quality of rural residents. Citizens from rural and peripheral areas are generally considered to be less informed and therefore underrepresented in the EU democratic processes. We aim to develop and implement measures which will respond to the real needs faced in this regard by our small, peripheral and rural communities, and which will facilitate exchanges, peaceful relations and mutual understanding between European citizens.