FONDACA was recognized in 2008 as a European think tank by the European Commission. The main activities of European scope or significance that it has been implementing since 2002 are summarized below.

 

Community Citizenship
Between 2005 and 2010 FONDACA has promoted a program of exchange of knowledge, information and experience on citizenship between Europe and the USA. The program, named “Euro-American Colloquia on Citizenship”, involved several scholars, experts, representatives of public institutions, journalists, civic leaders, entrepreneurs, in events and seminars that took place in the USA and in Italy, mainly hosted by academic institutions. The program consisted in a “learning by differences” exercise. Read more.

In 2005 FONDACA gave its scientific support to Active Citizenship Network in the reporting of the program “Monitoring the State of Patients’ Rights in Europe”, related to the European Charter of Patients’ Rights. The report – regarding 15 EU countries – contributed to the definition of the European Commission Directive on Patients’ Rights.
Read more.

 

European Active Citizenship
Between 2005 and 2008 FONDACA worked together with Active Citizenship Network for the setting up of the European Charter of Active Citizenship (read the text) that was delivered in 2006. The Charter was prepared by a framework research on 50 good practices in citizens’ organizations-governments relations in 10 EU countries (read more), then drafted and discussed with citizens’ organizations and scholars, and finally presented in Vienna.

In 2007-2008 FONDACA promoted and implemented together with Active Citizenship Network the “Monitoring and Evaluating the State of European Active Citizenship Rights” project, consisting in the setting up and testing a toolbox for gather information on the state of the active citizenship rights in the European countries, also at the end of comparing different national situations. The project was implemented in 10 European countries.
Read more

Since 2009 FONDACA has been participating in the stakeholder forum of the Europe for Citizens program, promoted and managed by the European Commission, DG COMM.
Read more

 

Democratic Governance
In 2006 FONDACA implemented a research commissioned by the Representation in Italy of the European Commission on the role of civic organizations in the communication processes of the European Union. The research focused on Italian civic organizations operating both at Community, national and local levels, in the framework of the “Plan D” of the European Commission.

In 2010 FONDACA implemented a research on the impact of EU participation and information policies on local-based civic organizations in Italy aimed at verifying the level of knowledge and the degree of involvement of local civic organizations in the information flows and in the participation policies promoted by the European Union. The research was financed by the Representation in Italy of the European Commission.

The research reports of these two researches are in Italian. However, the main findings of them are included in Giovanni Moro’s Citizens in Europe book.

 

The single currency
In 2009 FONDACA started “The Other Side of the Coin”, a research and dialogue program focused on the multiple relations that link the single currency to the European citizenship-building process. The program involved scholars and experts coming from Europe and the USA and consisted in:

• two seminars (Pisa, June 2009 and Berlin, October 2010);
• a framework research on existing books and other materials;
• a open database containing more than 300 items among books, articles, scientific papers, institutional documents, etc.;
• a book directed to the public debate in Italy (La moneta della Discordia, “The Currency of Discord”, 2011) written by Giovanni Moro, that was presented in 20 events in Italy during 2012;
• the conference “The Euro Knot. The Single Currency and European Citizenship in the Time of Community Turmoil” held in Brussels on 24 January 2013, at the European Parliament, with the participation of scholars, experts, journalists, representatives of EU institutions;
• a book collecting scientific papers and edited by Giovanni Moro, published in English (The Single Currency and European Citizenship. Unveiling the Other Side of the Coin) and in Italian (Euro e cittadinanza. L’anello mancante), both in 2013.

Read more on this program

 

Corporate Citizenship
Between 2005 and 2007 FONDACA developed a program on partnerships between private companies and active citizenship organizations in Europe, through two projects. The first project, named “Citizens as CSR Partners” consisted in an analysis of 45 partnerships that took place in 9 EU countries, on the base of a innovative approach and methodology. It produced the Not Alone report. The second project, named “Lisbon minus 3”, involved 14 countries in testing and validating a methodology for the evaluation of partnerships.
Read more
Read the Not Alone report