Yesterday the European Movement held the first meeting of its new project “Unity through Mobility” in Brussels. This unique mentoring system involves 12 EMI National Councils (Albania, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy and Slovenia) and will be running for 1 year.
Ms Sophie Beernaerts, Head of Unit in DG Communication, was invited to present the Europe for Citizens’ Programme and its priorities to the 21 delegates present. Ms Beernaerts stressed the role of Civil Society and the way CSOs could advise the EC on how to take its agenda forward. She also urged the participating countries to develop sustainable partnerships and to produce transferable results that could benefit the entire EMI network, and also inspire the European Commission in its shaping of the post-2013 programme.
 
After the very interesting and useful presentations of each National Council, the Secretary General, Diogo Pinto, proposed the following pairs of mentor-mentorees, all of which were accepted with great enthusiasm by the delegates:
Albania-Denmark
Estonia-Finland
Italy-Germany
France-Slovenia
Greece-Ireland
Hungary-Belgium

The partners then got down to work and came up with some bright, fresh ideas in less than 2 hours – a very promising result which clearly shows the added value of the EMI network!   

Next steps

The next meeting planned is a training session for the delegates in Brussels on 28 April. The training will deal with Communication, IT, and EU projects.

The next day will be dedicated to political contacts in Brussels for the delegates, with the support of the EMI Board and Secretariat.