Citizens

DARE: the project that transformed the Darsena of Ravenna

“Dare” in English means to take risks: specifically, the challenge was to renew the Darsena District of Ravenna, through an open and participatory digital transformation process, making it more attractive, greener, and safer.

DARE is a project funded by the European Community, focused on a process of Urban Regeneration that leverages the alliance between the public, private, non-profit sectors, and citizens. The Darsena of Ravenna, with its history, has become an open-air laboratory of regeneration and digital transition. The aim of the project, in fact, was the dissemination of a widespread digital culture to sensitize citizens of the changes in cities and push them to interact.

In 2019 the DARE project – “Digital Environment for Collaborative Alliances to Regenerate Urban Ecosystem in middle-sized cities” – was funded under the IV call of the UIA – Urban Innovative Actions program. Since then, many activities have been undertaken from the organization of webinars to digitalization courses aimed at citizens, from public calls to photo contests, up to on-site initiatives. The journey ended in recent days with a series of meetings and debates.

https://www.darsenaravenna.it/home-dare

Italian prejudices on Europe: the case of the defense of multilingualism

The lack of knowledge of the European Union implies several prejudices that spread without foundation. It is often said that Italy “obeys” Europe or makes a priori choices because “Europe asks for it”. Actually, there are important cases in which Italy has opposed and even won its battle.

One of these cases is the possibility to choose the Italian language in competitions organized by EPSO (European Personnel Selection Office) to work in the institutions of the European Union.
In 2007 some calls were challenged by Italy at the Court of the EU and then at the Court of Justice of the EU as the languages required to pass the competitions for the European institutions were only English, French, and German. The same question arose almost in the same terms a few years later and, even in the latter case, Italy reached the second level of European judgment.
The Court of Justice, after analyzing all the arguments, coming from both the Italian Government and the European Commission, declared the calls of the contest in question annulled as illegitimate. However, the European Court added that it is up to the institutions to decide whether and how to limit the choice of languages.

Subsequently, Italy and Spain challenged, again for the language issue, some calls published in 2013 by EPSO which, despite the Court of Justice had already ruled on the issue, continued to use only English, French, and German both in contests and in communications with all candidates. The General Court ruled that the use of English, French and German only for communication between candidates and the EPSO Office is unlawful because it is contrary to Regulation No 1.

This battle, which lasted 8 years, ensured that Italian – along with all the languages of the countries belonging to the Union – was not discriminated as a language.

Language skills are the focus of the construction of the European Education Area, they are essential for mobility, cooperation, and mutual understanding.
The coexistence of many languages in Europe is a strong symbol of the European Union's aspiration to be united in diversity.

Open Laboratories: The Places of Innovation

Ten places opened to local communities in order to promote digital inclusion and citizen participation.

Stimulating and increasing the participation of citizens in the development of cities through the use of ICT technologies and promoting the cultural actors representative of the cultural identity of the cities: on these objectives is based the project for the creation of the “Rete di Laboratori aperti dell’Emilia-Romagna”, among the priority axes of the Por Fesr 2014-2020 – Attractive and participatory cities , promoted by the Emilia-Romagna Region, thanks to the European Fund for Regional Development.

The European Urban Agenda recognizes cities a central role as a territorial hub, providing for actions to qualify cultural heritage and to develop all the factors that favor the participation of citizens in the strategic choices of the city, with new technologies.

The nine main municipalities of the Region, plus Cesena, were involved, responsible for implementing sustainable urban development strategies that designed their own open laboratory focused on the vocation of the city.

The spaces dedicated to becoming Open Laboratories are equipped with advanced solutions in which forms of comparison, cooperation and collaboration are developed between companies, citizens, the third sector, universities and the world of research and public administration and, in general, of all the actors who have a significant role in the transformation of the information society in the urban environment.

With UE Factor – Stories of Cohesion we also tell these important experiences, including the focus on InLab of the Cloisters of San Pietro in Reggio Emilia to which we dedicated a video clip: https://youtu.be/IkrAIFTfI5s

The site dedicated to Open Laboratories: https://www.laboratoriaperti.it/