'EU Democracy in Action - Have Your Say with the European Citizens' Initiative' toolkit for schools
What makes young people take action on an issue they care about? What actions can they take as citizens of the European Union? What is possible when we work together – and across borders – on issues that matter?
Engage your students with the new 'EU Democracy in Action - Have Your Say with the European Citizens' Initiative' toolkit for schools!
To become active citizens, young people need to understand how democracy works and what their rights and responsibilities are. The ‘EU Democracy in Action' toolkit introduces pupils to the European Citizens’ Initiative and encourages them to take an active role in European issues. It is aimed at high school pupils in their last two years of school.
Through instruction, research, debate, project work and role play, pupils will learn how decisions are made in the EU, how these decisions affect their everyday lives, and, most importantly, how the European Citizens’ Initiative allows them to join with others to shape EU policy on issues that they care about.
"My students found the module really interesting. They felt intrigued by the tasks and had a lot of fun, especially while making a video for their ECI - a good combination of education and entertainment (edutainment)." - Małgorzata, secondary school teacher from Poland
The course is suitable for citizenship or civics classes; it would also work as part of a project-based, foreign language class, or CLIL course. It is available in all the official EU languages.
Introducing the toolkit
A webinar took place in May 2023 to introduce educators to the toolkit. A recording of the webinar and the powerpoint slides (in English only) are found below.
You can also listen to the episode of the 'CitizenCentral' podcast "The ABCs of ‘EU Democracy in Action’ - presenting a European Citizens’ Initiative Toolkit" (in English only).
A competition for high school pupils
The ImagineEU competition called on young Europeans in their last two years of secondary school to learn more about how to be active citizens in the EU. They were invited to think of concrete ideas that can make the EU an even better place to live, and that could benefit citizens across the European Union – similarly to the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI). The competition complements the 'EU Democracy in Action - Have Your Say with the European Citizens' Initiative' educational toolkit for schools.
Read more on the Video competition page.
