The working paper “Europe, the EU and the Europe-related Activities of Pforzheim: Results of the Citizens’ Survey 2023” presents the results of a representative survey of the citizens of the city of Pforzheim on their attitudes towards the EU and their perception of the city’s Europe-related activities.
Click here for the working paper (German).
Under the title “Germany: Municipalities as an anchor of European cohesion?”, Prof. Dr. Stephan Grohs will present the results of the research project at the EGPA webinar “The EU through the eyes of local government. Subnational administrative strategies of engaging with European integration” on January 17, 2024.
Municipal Europe-related work faces a variety of challenges. The working paper presents examples of best practices that address different aspects of these challenges, ranging from acquiring funding, networking and town twinning work to internal European work. The fact sheets provide a quick overview of the resources required to carry out each project and include information on the challenges and benefits of the project. In this way, ideas can be adapted easily and precisely.
In cooperation with the Schader Foundation, the closing conference of the KommZuEU project will take place on December 4 and 5 in Darmstadt (Schader Forum). The results of the project will be presented and various aspects of municipal European work will be discussed with experts from academia and practice.
Further information on registration and the conference program (in German) can be found here.
How can municipalities contribute to political and social cohesion in Europe? This question will be discussed with academics and municipal practitioners at a conference December 4-5, 2023, at the Schader Forum in Darmstadt (Goethestraße 2, 64285 Darmstadt).
Please apply with proposals for a workshop or presentation contribution from academia or practice on the following topics:
at www.schader-stiftung.de/kommzueu or by mail to call@schade-stiftung.de by Saturday, September 30, 2023 at the latest.
More information here.
The conference takes place in cooperation with researchers from the FernUniversität in Hagen, the German University of Administrative Sciences Speyer and the German section of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR). It is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
Benjamin Gröbe will present the paper “Cities in the European Multilevel System: Institutional and Organizational Factors for addressing challenges and seizing opportunities” at Eura 2023 at the University of Reykjavik, Iceland (June 22-24, 2023). The paper examines the role of the local level as an intermediary between the citizens and the European level in the process of Europeanization.
Furthermore, he is presenting a paper on “Organizing local interests in Europe: The role of the municipal level in bottom-up mobilization” at the 29th International Conference of Europeanists at the University of Reykjavik in Iceland as well. The paper will deliver quantitative and qualitative findings on the questions posed by the KommZuEU research project on how the local level responds to Europeanization and what European activities are developed. The conference will take place from June 27 to June 29, 2023.
The third workshop with experts from academia, associations and municipalities will take place on December 13 from 9-12:00 am. The first results of our case studies on the European activities of German cities and municipalities will be presented. In addition, we will discuss our approach to surveying citizens’ and different local actors’ perceptions of municipal European activities with the participating experts. Please contact Benjamin Gröbe to register for the online workshop.
The second working paper of the project has been published entitled „Die Europaaktivitäten der deutschen Städte und Gemeinden“. This working paper presents the results of our survey on the Europe-related activities of German cities and municipalities. It focuses on the question of how Europeanisation affects the local level and which activities municipalities have developed and routinely pursue to respond to the challenge of Europeanisation on the one hand and actively shape Europeanisation on the other.
Under the title ‘Municipalities as anchors of cohesion’, we present the first results of the survey of German municipalities with 20,000 or more inhabitants in issue 3/2022 of CEMR’s member magazine ‘EUROPA kommunal’. Please find the article here (article in German).
The first working paper of the project has been published entitled “Doing Europe: Local Governments as Agents of European Cohesion“. It introduces an understanding of “European cohesion” and discusses the role local governments can play in achieving it. To this end, it reviews findings from previous research and draws conclusions for the empirical study.