Erasmus+ programme supported Contact Making Event in Galatone, Italy.

The past 60 years the European Union has been committed to creating a united, well-connected and cooperative block of European countries. Council of Europe, since its inception in 1949 has been working extensively to promote social justice and fundamental values – respect for human dignity and human rights, freedom, tolerance, democracy, equality and the rule of law. The recent political, economic and social changes e.g. new president of United States of America, Brexit, refugee crisis and visible anti-EU movements in certain EU regions have led to increasing nationalism and isolation of societies divided by borders, but EUs visible and loud approach to global cooperation and collaboration to solve some of the most pressing global issues still remains.

In today’s world that is becoming more isolated and nationalistic, there is a strong need to reaffirm European vision and approach for cross-country collaboration in solving some of the issues EU and its neighbouring regions are facing. The project “CME Strategic Partnership EUMED” aims at creating a new project and impact-oriented partnerships between well-established and social change-oriented non-governmental organizations from Programme countries and Partner countries neighbouring the EU, specifically, the South-Mediterranean countries (Region 3). The partnerships between organizations based in Programme countries and Region 3 (South-Mediterranean countries) are not very common today. The project aims at establishing new partnerships with organizations based in countries that have less benefited from European cooperation and Erasmus+ programme.