Civil society with its different expressing of ideas is contributing to the 2013 Festival of Europe through a series of initiatives which, across both the topics and ways of doing, mirror its abundance and diversity with a leading thread though, as opposed to the theme of the European year of citizenship, participation and democracy. Among these, initiatives related to the crisis and its ending through a greater European integration, the European balance sheet and the necessity to have a European plan for a sustainable development, perspectives of the European integration in the security and defence sectors, a European Youth Convention and a big meeting engaging various realities of civil society in order to debate about “Which Europe” the Europeans need, different initiatives on the theme of the European rights and public wealth, and the perspective of a deployment and a broad reach public debate in support of a more and more united and democratic Europe capable of guaranteeing well-being and security to the European citizens.
