22-24 October 2015, Thessaloniki, Greece
More than 300 participants registered for the NECE conference in Thessaloniki. The conference will address the challenges of Citizenship Education in complex times of crises and unrest. Panels and workshops will deal with questions regarding the conflict between the Ukraine, Russia and 'the West', 'the West' and 'the islamic world', as well as with current debates in Europe such as the question of European identity and solidarity in the present refugee crisis. Among the anticipated speakers and discussants will be Ulrike Guérot of the European Democracy Lab, Author and Researcher Kenan Malik, Audrey Osler of the University of Leeds, Loukas Tsoukalis of the University of Athens and King's College London, Dimitris Christopoulos of the MODUL University Vienna, and Author Lizzie Doron from Israel.
The programme for pre-conference activities is online now.
A waiting list for participants has been arranged, please register here.

We are happy to announce that our conference blog will soon be available. Come and join us at http://blog.nece.eu .
Before, during and after this year's NECE conference, you’ll find papers, presentations, abstracts, workshop results and pictures on the blog. Inform yourself about what’s going on at the event, and the progress being made in the NECE network!

This public forum is being organised by the Focus Group prior to and in close connection with the NECE Conference in Thessaloniki. Under the working title “Beyond Them and Us: Hard-to-reach Learners and their Role in Citizenship Education”, the forum will offer both issue-driven workshops and space for networking and cooperation. Its aim is to build on results from meetings that took place in Berlin, Leicester and Vienna in 2013-2014.
For more information, visit the HTR website or contact the Focus Group directly at focusgroup-hardtoreach@lab-concepts.de.

The next meeting of the Focus Group “Exchange between Europe and North Africa” will take place in Thessaloniki from 20-21 October 2015 in the final run-up to the NECE conference. The meeting just before the NECE conference offers a great opportunity for experts and practitioners from North African and European countries to get together in order to exchange thoughts and ideas on civic education, draw inspiration for future cooperation projects, discuss recent developments and make new plans.
For more information, contact the group directly at focusgroup-exchange@lab-concepts.de.

The Africa-Europe Youth Cooperation Online Resource Centre (AEYCO) was developed under the Joint Management Agreement secured between the European Commission (EuropeAid Cooperation Office) and the North-South Centre of the Council of Europe. Its aim is to promote continuous updating and monitoring, transparency, knowledge sharing, capacity building and a community of practices to support cooperation processes between young people in Europe and Africa. The centre’s general goal is to map the relevant participants (institutional stakeholders, youth organisations, networks) in AEYCO and foster capacity building and cooperation between the African and European organisations that are working towards Africa-EU strategy goals.
More information can be found here.

Originally launched in the midst of the Egyptian Revolution as ‘Naqeshny’ (Arabic for “discuss with me”), what’s now called Speakol (Speak Out Loud) has been designed as a free, democratic and open platform for facilitating healthy, critical, political debate and exchange on socio-political conditions in the country. Backed up by a strong user base, the name-change and relaunch are contributing to Speakol’s vision of going global. In the near future, the platform’s priorities will be to provide a unique service to media content publishers and brands in the form of three plug-ins – debates, argument boxes and comparisons – where users can debate two presented sides to a story. Subsequently they are given the chance to vote up or down on an issue, or choose between up to four given options on any topic.
More information can be found here.

The European Citizen Action Service (ECAS) is an international non-profit organisation based in Brussels with a pan-European membership and 22 years of experience. It provides services to a network of about 150 civil society organizations and citizens on EU citizen rights enforcement and civic participation in the EU decision-making process. The ECAS strategic plan for the period 2014-2017 is organised along three thematic pillars: (1) “EU Resource Centre Services” aimed at strengthening European citizenship, free movement of rights enforcement and enhancing civic participation in the EU decision-making process by providing quality services to both CSOs and citizens throughout Europe; (2) “Open EU Decision-Making”, with 
objectives that include contributing to the development of an “engaged EU citizenship” by ensuring improved transparency in EU decision-making and more active citizen participation and collaboration in EU policy formulation, and (3) “Engaging the Unengaged”, which seeks to diversify approaches to outreach and engage Central and Eastern European Member States, citizens and youth.
More information can be found here.

The BBE is a Germany-wide network that links organizations and associations from the third sector (non-profit organizations) and civil society with institutions in business and working life at both federal and community levels.
The network’s common goal is to bolster civil society and civic involvement, while its key objective is to improve the general legal, organizational and institutional conditions surrounding civic involvement. It also seeks to encourage and support concrete projects for actual implementation in civil society, governments and business, as well as to raise and activate political awareness.
More information can be found here.

The German Development Institute has developed a five-point plan for the refugee crisis in order to slow down escalation and save lives. The plan emphasizes the necessity for complex initiatives, a significant application of resources and bold political reforms.
To read the five-point plan, click here.

Although it’s been an ongoing topic in the news for years, the refugee crisis in Europe has suddenly captured the world’s attention. But what are the underlying causes, and what should individuals and governments do to help? Writers Ali Smith, Mary Beard, Orhan Pamuk and Pankaj Mishra and others share their views.
For the full article, click here.

Tapping into the skills and potential of young people is key to building stronger, more inclusive communities. With that in mind, Volunteering Matters has joined forces with partners across Europe to develop citizenship education material for children between 8 and 12 years of age.
Citizenship education is a crucial component in supporting young people to become active citizens and encouraging youth engagement in democratic processes. Following its launch in early 2015, Volunteering Matters attended a three-day meeting in Madrid to develop educational material. In the coming months, the UK national charity will continue to develop methods and content for citizenship education to be tested in primary schools across Europe.
More information can be found here.

The European DARE Forum met on 7 May 2015 in Riga to discuss the future of the Development Education & Awareness Raising (DEAR) sector. Because ‘development’ and ‘development education’ are increasingly viewed as outdated terms and frameworks for the work that the sector is pursuing, one of the topics DEAR participants gathered to discuss was two new frameworks: Global Citizenship Education and Glocalisation.
For more about the event, head here.

Maintained by the Research Forum WIFO, the Directory of Professional Contacts (DPC) offers up-to-date information on more than 200 contacts across 30 countries in the fields of transnational European vocational education and training (VET) and human resource development (HRD) research. All of the people listed in the DPC are both producers of transnational research and active transnational networkers.
To check out the network, click here.

The 2015 Intercultural Innovation Award is looking for grassroots projects around the world that seek to promote dialogue and cooperation among people from different cultural backgrounds. Interested organizations have to apply online by 30 September of this year.
More information can be found here.

The European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Awards are Europe’s most prestigious prizes in the fields of heritage conservation, management, research, education and communication. Every year, they honour the most outstanding heritage achievements from all over Europe by recognising excellence and dedication among architects, craftsmen, cultural heritage experts, volunteers, schools, local communities, heritage owners and the media, helping to stimulate creativity and innovation through the power of example.
In 2016, the Awards will be granted to up to 30 remarkable heritage projects and initiatives in four categories. Up to seven of the finalists will be selected as Grand Prix winners and receive €10,000 each. One will be given the Public Choice Award.
More information can be found here.

The idea behind the Historiana competition is to encourage educators to find practical ways to overcome a common challenge for history, heritage and citizenship educators. Each edition will focus on a different challenge, usually linked to the theme of an international training. The Jury will write a report with the main lessons learned from the analysis of all submissions as a contribution to the advancement of history, heritage and citizenship education as important subjects.
The challenge for the 1st edition is to create learning activities that help to address stereotypes by teaching sensitive history in divided societies.
The winner of the competition will be invited to give a workshop at the EUROCLIO conference on “Reimagining Remembrance & Dealing with the Legacy of a Violent Past” in Belfast on 19-24 March 2016. The costs for travel and stay will be fully covered by EUROCLIO. The winning learning activity will also feature on Historiana (la.historiana.eu).
All history, heritage and citizenship educators, teacher trainers and trainee teachers can submit a contribution.
More information can be found here.

The 2016 MESEA Conference to be held in Warsaw (Poland) on June 22-24 will focus on ethnic and minority discourses that have undergone erasure yet keep resurfacing, on cultural traces left by groups long gone that have been forgotten and silenced, as well as on cultural inscriptions left by those who have more recently gained a voice and a profile. The conference welcomes paper and panel proposals from scholars in a wide range of disciplines, including but not limited to ethnic and race studies, literary, cultural, and film studies, (art) history, critical theory, philosophy and postcolonial studies.
More information can be found here.

Moscow (Russia), 28 September – 2 October 2015)
The Trilateral Youth Forum initially grew out of a German-Russian context, but from the start that bilateral format was intended to broaden to include Poland – the geographically largest EU Member State in Central Europe. Seeking to add the perspective of active young people to this budding new trialogue, the Alumni Association of the German-Russian Youth Parliament (DRJUG e.V.), the Student Parliament of the Republic of Poland, the University of Warsaw Student Union and the Russian-Polish Youth Council teamed up in 2013 to organize the first Trilateral Youth Forum in Warsaw.
For more on the trialogue, head here.

Belgrade (Serbia), 1–5 October 2015
TRANSEUROPA is a festival of the arts, culture and politics that is transnational in its fabric, concept and content. The event’s primary objective is to create a temporary space for people from throughout Europe to exchange, co-create and find common ground for future actions that call for democracy, equality and culture beyond the nation state. The programme was conceived by a pan-European team of professionals, activists and artists to tackle the most burning issues facing the continent from a transnational point of view.
More information can be found here

Gothenburg (Sweden), 15–17 October 2015
Culture Action Europe’s annual conference in 2015 will explore the tension between the private and the public/common sphere, the rise in contradictions in the principles citizens stand for, the systems that are put in place to bring them to life, and the behaviours citizens bow to or even practice under the pressure of real and artificial challenges.
You can find out more about the conference here.

Rhodes (Greece), 22–26 October 2015
The International Cultural Academy 2015 conference in Rhodes will bring together young researchers and diplomats, practitioners and students from interdisciplinary fields and settings to discuss and share theories, research and best practices. Its aim is to foster dialogue on issues related to Public and Cultural Diplomacy. This year, the academic event will focus on the crisis throughout the European Union and its potential to generate positive developments for Europe’s future.
More information can be found here

You can find more current publications on citizenship education in Europe at the NECE website.

You receive the NECE Newsletter because you subscribed and have confirmed that you wish to receive information about the NECE-Networking European Citizenship Education initiative. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.

The NECE Newsletter is published regularly and distributed via e-mail. It is available to anyone on the www.nece.eu website. The newsletter is published by the German Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb), which is responsible for its content according to definitions laid down by the German Telemedia Act.

Further contact information:
German Federal Agency for Civic Education
Adenauerallee 86
53113 Bonn (Germany)
www.bpb.de / www.nece.eu

If you have any questions please e-mail to: nece@lab-concepts.de

The NECE newsletter contains information about current professional debates in the field of citizenship education in Europe. We hope it will serve as an important tool of communication and co-operation among stakeholders and institutions in Europe actively engaged in citizenship education. Our aim is to increase transparency for national actors in this field and for the growing NECE network.