Europuls – Centre of European Expertise is a Romanian NGO dedicated to promoting European values and integration. Since its founding in 2010, it has launched over 30 projects focused on youth education, citizen engagement, and bridging the gap between decision-makers and society.
Its flagship initiative, the EUROSFAT Forum, has grown into a major platform for European affairs discussions, bringing together thousands of participants globally. Europuls is also committed to combating misinformation and fostering youth involvement in democracy, as demonstrated by its European Young Leaders Community project. In an era of rising Euroscepticism, Europuls continues to play a crucial role in strengthening democratic values in Romania and beyond. Read below an interview with Francesca Cristea, Head of Policy & Programs at Europuls, about the centre and its projects.
What is Europuls? When it has been set up and what is its mission?
EUROPULS – Centre of European Expertise is a non-governmental organization founded in 2010 by Romanian professionals in EU affairs with the objective to promote the European integration process in Romania. EUROPULS aims to encourage public debates on European issues and raise awareness about European values and policies through articles and studies, as well as through the organization of public debates, workshops and conferences. EUROPULS has 3 pillars: 1. Education for youth, 2. Informing citizens, 3. Connecting decision-makers to citizens’ needs.
How many projects have you developed in Romania during your existence? And can you name a few of utmost importance and their results?
First of all, it is important to state that besides projects, we have series of events related to information on EU Affairs and combating disinformation, and trainings in schools and universities about the decision-making process at the EU level. For example, only in 2024 we had 9 events and projects, 52 reports and articles, and we reached physically 2500 citizens that took part in our activities.
In total, Europuls’ impact levels up to 30 projects: 18 related to connecting decision-makers with citizens, 4 project comprising informing guides and platforms for citizens, and 8 projects dedicated to education young people in the spirit of the European values.
Since our existence, we have been trying to shape direct dialogues between decision-makers at local/ national/ European levels and citizens, representatives of the civil society, public and private sector. We believe in long-term cross-sectorial solutions for policies.
Our flagship project – EUROSFAT Forum, is the most important forum on European Affairs in the region. It started with the noble idea of bringing closer the decision-making process closer to the citizens in a dialogue session and extend to 12 editions. EUROSFAT 2021 – Europe is the future was the national winner of the Charlemagne Youth Prize for enhancing European values. In 2023, the EUROSFAT Forum expanded to local level in Timișoara and in the Republic of Moldova in Chișinău, Ungheni, Cahul, Ceadîr-Lunga with a public over 600 people attending the Moldova edition. In 2024, EUROSFAT reached a global edition. In total, over years a total of 6000 citizens, decision-makers, representatives of civil society, private and public sectors.
Among them, an important project is focused on youth. You have recently held the European Young Leaders Community Forum in Bucharest. What was its purpose and what was the feedback?
A close project to out heart is also the Young European Leaders Community, a project financed from the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union. The idea of the project started from an observation of one of our volunteers, Mihai, who stated: `Even though I am in a very good highschool in the capital of Romania, I feel that my colleagues do not know or understand the benefits of us being part in the EU`. This project was a journey of discovery and learning. Throughout the project, 6 members of the European Parliament (one of whom became the Executive Vice-President of the European Commission), 3 member of the national Parliament and a local commissioner engaged in direct dialogues with our participants. We believe that it is important for decision-makers to be connected to the young people’s needs and for them to ask their representatives about their initiatives and to suggest them new ones.
During our project we had 4 mobilities, 1 media conference, 10 online mentoring sessions, and we reached out to 300 direct participants, 1300 young people through dissemination.
Over time, we have been happy to see that our results have been recognized. The Young European Leaders Community has been designated as a model of good practice to increase youth participation in voting at All Together for the European Elections 2024.
We were honoured to win the bronze prize in the category „Social Involvement Volunteering”, at the Romanian Youth Gala, organized by the Ministry of Family and the „Prize for European Values” offered by the Erasmus+ Agency in Romania (ANPCDEFP).
We launched the first barometer on the perception of young people in Romania about the European Union, what was their interest to vote on June 9, 2024, but also about what they want from the new MEPs. It was conducted during April-July with the answers of over 300 young people. Results were offered to the decision-makers at the European level.
At the same time, our participants created the Guide of the First Voter, an information tool for young people who voted for the first time in this year’s European elections. It responds to the need to understand how the European Union works and the responsibilities of those we voted to represent Romania in the European Parliament. Based on the consultation of participants in the “Young European Leaders Community” project, the Guide contributes to strengthening democratic values.
We succeeded in creating a community of young people ready to safeguard the European values.
And related to the younger generation, how Europuls perceive the young people, who are the future generation of employees, leaders etc it has worked with? Are they prepared for the times to come, particularly considering their digital native background, but also considering the troubling times ahead of us in terms of policy, economy, social systems?
We believe that young people are the present, not the future. This is the reason why we constantly invest in them in terms of offering opportunities to learn about EU institutions, to hold trainings on how the EU decision-making process is shaped, to speak their minds in events with decision-makers, to organize programmes and projects and to understand how can they develop their community.
Nowadays, young people have been through a global pandemic, have witnessed a war at Romanian borders and at the moment of speaking are witnessing how a part of history is being written at the moment of speaking. Adding the ongoing changing labour market and the artificial intelligence developing tools, young people are living in an era where what was available 2 years ago would not be available anymore today. It is natural for them to feel overwhelmed and unsecure in regards to the future as the recipe of our parents’ career is not a pattern for nowadays. Young people are looking for experiences in order to perfect themselves for soft skills such as communication, event-organizing, public speaking, etc. One important aspect that the previous generations did not have it and they have it is the mental health and work-life balance emphasis. As everything around them evolves fast, they feel the need to have fast results which is not usually the case when it comes to building a career. I believe this would be the struggle of their generation.
The EUROSFAT Forum is held in Bucharest in May. What was the main theme and the topics to be tackled? And further details, participants, countries, etc.
EUROSFAT Forum has reached a global dimension in 2024 when joined forces with the Global Forum on Modern Direct Democracy. We combined Europuls’ expertise on EU Affairs and our experience connecting decision-makers with citizens with Democracy International’s experience on global direct democracy. The event represented the space where participants were able to debate and take part in discussions on democracy and civic participation during this crucial election year. It was the first time where this Forum headed Eastern Europe, and together with the Bucharest Cityhall, University of Bucharest, Democracy International and the Swiss Democracy Foundation. As always, we have conducted the EUROSFAT Forum under the patronage of the European Parliament, European Commission and the presidency of the Council of EU – the Belgian Presidency.
Thus, between 15-18 May 2024, the Eurosfat Forum has taken on a global dimension, and together with our partners from Democracy International, we managed to bring together in Bucharest a diverse global community of over 500 experts, decision-makers, journalists and activists. The origin of the participant was diverse from Europe, USA, Latin America, Taiwan, South Africa, etc. The six main themes of the forum, on which all debated concentrated were: fundamental trust in democracy; the role of democracy in peace and conflict resolution; European democracy and transnational participation; media, technology, and democracy; the vitality of local democracy; empowering youth participation and the importance of engaging the new generation in the decision making-processes at national and European level.
Bucharest was truly the capital of democracy, thanks to Eurosfat 2024 -Global Forum on Modern Direct Democracy.
During the forum, our team organized the one and only electoral debate on the European Parliament elections in Romania, with a representative from 3 parties and 2 independent candidates. The debate was conducted in partnership with Euronews Romania and broadcast LIVE in full on their television channel. As we wanted to show our international participants a part of Romania, we have organized 3 study visits:
- Ploiești- Youth Capital of Romania 2024 – how youth can empower their community,
- EFdeN solar houses built by young students – how should our sustainable housing look like,
- Historic tour of Bucharest conducted by the students from the History Faculty – where learned about the Revolution of 1989, visualizing at the same time the places where it unfolded.
We also have organized a Local products fair with the support of Romanian entrepreneurs such as Artesana, AQUA Carpatica or Domeniile Samburesti, the local products fair represented the way we introduced international participants to the local culture. Our work was be recognized by the project nomination at the Public Participation Awards Gala.
I saw you have a column RO33inUE, about Romania’s MEPs and covering stories from the European Parliament. What would be your stance about Romania’s representation in the EU, the MEPs activity? Is it an active delegation? Can they do more for Romania in terms of promoting the country’s projects?
The idea of RO33inEU is a result coming out from our consultative meetings and events with citizens. They all told us that they feel the need for a platform where they could check the latest EU Affairs news in an accessible language that could explain the general context. This is how our idea became reality. The platform was launched at the beginning of July 2024 on our website and it contains interactive information about the 33 MEPs that Romanians sent to the European Parliament. We publish analysis after every plenary sessions and the manner in which the Romanian MEPs vote and their positions. We follow-up the subject on how a certain issue can affect us – directly or not – zooming out to the international context. Since its launch, among the materials published on RO33inUE are: the analysis of the new delegation of Romania to the European Parliament, articles about the most important reports voted at European level, the “Guide to the priorities of new European Commissioners” , analysis of the challenges of each portfolio and various articles about the issues of interest about Romania and its representatives at the European level.
It is mentioned on your “Mission” section that “the NGO’s purpose is to promote the European integration process in Romania but also to contribute to the development of a European public space”. With all that is currently happening in Romania and across Europe, the far-right, anti-European stances getting louder, dubbed by the entire world political framework being under pressure (US new administration’s belligerent statements against Europe), would you consider that the EU’s values are under attack and if there is a downward trend of the European spirit among Romanians? And if yes, what would be the reasons?
Definitely our mission has never been more important than nowadays. Since September 2022, we aimed to be more anchored at grassroots and bring quality information to young people (pupils, students, young professionals, etc.). We felt the wave of euroscepticism coming closer in 2023 when we have intensified our work. At this moment, we can say that not only the European values are under attack, but also the democratic ones. The majority of the young people are still influenced by their parents or professors that do not understand how EU functions and therefore in their visions did not produce impact.
Ultimately, in the last weeks the disinformation reached dangerous peaks when the pro-Russian candidate to the Romanian presidential elections declared that he will ban NGOs.
NGOs, that work on different subjects, are the backbone of the Romanian society teaching citizens to use their critical thinking and to be active in their communities by teaching how the decision-making process works and what tools they can use to make their voices heard. It is difficult to engage with the people that were submitted to ongoing disinformation sessions via social media platforms as they are not willing to listen to you and are being brutal at verbal level.
We have adapted our target public and we will intensify our work within developing and under developed regions. However, the support for any type of democratic actions decreased as a response to the fear of what could happen to the ones that promote European and democratic values. Unfortunately, we are at crossroads: if we do not act because we are afraid, we will have even more aspects that will be unknown in the future and the civic spirit will be once more put aside.
And continuing the idea of the previous question, is EU at a crossroad? How could the European leaders boost the European values and principles and what practical projects would help that?
European leaders should communicate more to citizens – open dialogue, leaders going in different regions and engaging with citizens in their local communities. Why? We are in a sensitive point where people are becoming reluctant to believe leaders and the results of democracy as such. When people are lacking trust in the future, they remember ‘old times’ where they knew what were they dealing with. We are at crossroads in the sense that people might be willing to prefer the past forgetting about the economic and moral damage of the countries.
We will concentrate our work on continuing to be the bridge between the decision-makers and the citizens. It is important to build trust and trust can be built only through constant communication. We will conduct debates and roundtables between citizens and decision-makers and of course, we have already begin to be working to the 13th edition of the EUROSFAT Forum. Let us hope 13 will not be an unlucky dark number for the manner on which we will debate subjects with citizens.
The rearmament of the EU should involve being prepared for a hybrid war. In a hybrid war disinformation is a massive weapon targeting the democratic values and the wellbeing of the population. Civil society is a very important pillar to help Europe combat disinformation. We need to keep offering sustainable financial support for NGOs for developing projects in different regions. The state does not have the capacity of the NGOs to reach citizens and NGOs do not have the resources of the State to survive long term without financial support.