We are a new, fast-growing and innovative organisation and we have just celebrated our first year of activity! New Europeans is working with our volunteers, partners and allies to give a practical and measured response to the three key challenges:
Making the popular case for Britain's membership of the European Union
Advancing a positive narrative about migration in Britain and Europe
Shaping a New Europe which meets the aspirations of the European citizen
3 new campaigns
We are organising our campaigning activities post the election around each of these themes:
(1) The free movement campaign - making the popular case for Europe
Many feel threatened by the idea of free movement in Europe but in fact it is one of the crowning achievements of the European Union and has brought huge practical benefits.
Starting with the publication of our Letter to The Observer, 8 June 2014, we are re-launching our core defence of free movement in the light of repeated calls from both sides of the political spectrum to introduce restrictions (incompatible with EU law) and the success of UKIP which seeks to end free movement by taking Britain out of the EU.
Working closely with trade unions, business organisations, research departments at universities and think tanks both in the UK and internationally we aim to better understand and challenge much of the ignorance and misunderstanding that underlies the scare-mongering about European migration.
We will also continue our work on the challenges that high levels of migration and rapid social change can bring to particular communities and sections of society. Understanding these challenges should be used to better inform the public policy response to European migration rather than be used as an argument for restricting it.
This campaign is being led by Roger Casale, Chair, supported by James Gill, Business outreach, Monika Tkaczyk, Events and protocol and Andrea Rusco, Stakeholder engagement.
Read more about our free movement campaign.
(2) The migrants contribute campaign - changing the narrative on migration
At the invitation of the International Office for Migration based in Geneva, we will be taking part in the #MigrantsContribute campaign in the UK. This is a coalition of 15 NGOs and charities including Migrant Rights Network and Migrant Voice supporting an international campaign to show migration in positive light and help neutralise anti-migrant rhetoric in society, the media and politics.
This campaign also builds directly on the work of our V!V!V! campaign which demonstrated that EU citizens have a voice in the UK as well as a vote. Many MEP candidates and local councillors reached out to EU expats. The scale and the significance of the EU expat vote was brought to light for the first time in a UK election campaign and changed things for the better.
New Europeans wants to continue its work in this area focusing not just on the presence and the number of EU expats in the UK but also their economic, social and cultural contribution to British society. We will be working with business to understand the extent of the private sector's dependence on employees and workers from other EU member states. We will also research participation rates in the public sector, notably the NHS.
Our work on this campaign is being led by Isis Acosta, Membership development, supported by Tamara Flanagan OBE, Director of Programmes and Oana Romocea, Media relations and external communications.
Read more about the migrants contribute campaign here.
(3) The vote denied campaign - giving Europeans a voice in shaping the future
As reported in the Huffington Post, many EU expat citizens were unable to vote in the European Parliamentary elections due to problems with the registration procedures.
How can European citizens begin to shape the future of a New Europe if they are not able, for whatever reason, to take part in elections? The right to vote is fundamental, and reports that European citizens were denied the vote in the UK have rightly attracted international attention.
New Europeans are working with the European Commission, the Electoral Commission, the House of Commons and community groups such as Migrantes Unidos to investigate further and bring forward recommendations for reform.
We have designed a questionnaire to find out in more detail how it was possible for so many EU expat citizens to be denied a vote in the European elections, despite all the work that was done by New Europeans, and other civil society groups to promote voter registration.
Further information about the campaign and a copy of the questionnaire can be downloaded from our website by clicking here: Vote Denied.
Our work on this campaign is being led by Sona Karikova, Campaigns and mediation and Samia Badani, Social policy analyst.
Join us as a volunteer
We need your help if we are to succeed with these campaigns and continue to build on the momentum from our first year and out voter registration campaign.
We need your ideas, your skills, your experience, your expertise. We need translators, content creators, social media enthusiasts, book-keepers, project managers, researchers, community organisers. event planners and help in many other very practical ways.
Whatever your skills and experience, if you are committed to what we are doing then we need you. If you are a young person or a student come and gain some more skills and new experience. If you are retired, share your experience with the next generation. If you live outside the UK, we need your help us build our European networks.
You can volunteer by emailing us at info@neweuropeans.net - we will reply within 24 hours.
For more information about New Europeans and this bulletin or to contribute comments or an article for our website please contact:
E: info@neweuropeans.net
W: www.neweuropeans.net
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