Brussels, 21/12/2004 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has launched an online consultation concerning the future Community Action Programme to promote active citizenship. This online consultation will last until 15 February 2005 is the first stage of a consultation exercise in which interested citizens and their organisations are invited to submit their opinions on the orientations of the future programme. The second stage will take the form of a consultative Forum involving representatives of interested parties in early February 2005 for a more in-depth discussion.
Since 1 January 2004, the Commission has been implementing a Community Action Programme to promote active citizenship, which will come to an end on 31st December 2006. The main purpose of this programme is to contribute to bringing citizens closer to the Union, having them involved in reflection and discussion on the Union, intensifying links between citizens of different countries, notably via town-twinning initiatives, and to stimulating initiatives in the field of civic participation. The Commission has already started working on its proposal for a future programme to take over this from initiative as of 1 January 2007. (The consultation questionnaire and background documents are available at http: //europa.eu.int/yourvoice/consultations/index_en.htm )