EHF co-organises EU elections Campaign Lab
Last year, we announced the launch of #yEUrManifesto, a civil society manifesto signed on by 200+ organisations that envisioned a fairer, more democratic, more sustainable and more efficient European Union.
Stemming from this collaboration, many felt that a larger gathering for European NGOs was needed so that they brainstorm jointly and exchange ideas about the run up to the European elections.
The result was the European Campaign Lab, held on 12-13 February 2019, where civil society organizations from all over Europe gathered for a joint creative and strategy event in Brussels. They exchanged about planned activities and campaigns by European and national NGOs for the European Parliament elections, and how these could mutually strengthen each other. One objective was to gather ideas on how to mount actions together in order to motivate citizens to go vote.
The EHF was at the heart of the organisation and chaired two plenary sessions during the event. The first one concerned success stories as a basis to brainstorm on what could be done together and the second on how to make NGO’s activities more impactful. Furthermore, the EHF hosted a world café session on the “politics of us vs. them”.
As a result of the 2-days event, several new streams of work were identified both for increased collaboration in the run up to the elections as well as for joint efforts to campaign together once the new European Parliament and Commission are set up. The EHF will play an increased role in the mapping of new Members of the European Parliament and the influence of civil society on the nomination of the members of the future European Commission.