Europe is a multi-level governance system and participation in European democracies starts at grassroots level. Yet, every day’s news show that policy-makers, both at the European and national level, are disconnected from citizens’ daily considerations and that Europe is too often perceived as an elite project. 

To turn this around, the Allianz Cultural Foundation decided in 2014 to become a partner of the FutureLab Europe programme to help to encourage young Europeans in their active citizenship efforts at their level, i.e. their communities. The programme offers young citizens of Europe the concrete chance to shape the reality around them by providing support for the concrete implementation of their own ideas and projects, as well as the unique opportunity to interact with decision-makers and other young people. It allows them to enhance their credentials as European citizens and to take action in support of the European idea, in particular on topics related to democratic values in Europe, equal opportunities for young people, and European identity. These themes are the three focal topics of the programme.

FutureLab Europe was established in 2011 and is supported by the Network of European Foundations (NEF), a consortium of major European foundations, and financed by seven of them. The European Policy Centre in Brussels is responsible for the practical implementation.

The funding foundations are the Allianz Kulturstiftung (Germany), King Baudouin Foundation (Belgium), the Evens Foundation (Belgium), the Robert Bosch Foundation (Germany), Fritt Ord Foundation (Norway), Real Maestranza de Caballeria de Ronda (Spain) and Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Portugal).