One of the priorities of the European Union for 2007-2013 is to favour the development of a European citizenship, encouraging a sense of belonging to the EU, and developing an awareness of the richness of its cultural, social and linguistic diversity. The “citizenship” heading provides a framework for this priority. There are four strands of development (youth, culture, media and civic participation) and the programme has a budget of 4.6 billion euros for the period 2007-2013.
The Union’s action plan in favour of European citizenship is implemented through four programmes :
• The « Youth in Action » programme, that aims to promote active participation in society for young people from 13 to 30 years old particularly in the public sector,
• The « Culture » programme, that aims to promote a shared cultural space for Europeans based on a common cultural heritage,
• The « Media » programme, that aims to preserve and reinforce cultural diversity and European audiovisual heritage, so as to increase the distribution of European audiovisual works and reinforce competitivity in this sector,
• The « Europe for citizens » programme, that aims to actively include citizens in the European integration process.
