"City Zen: for a sustainable society"

Europe for Citizens (formerly Citizens for Europe) is a European Union programme that aims to reduce the gap between citizens and the European Union. The global aim of the programme is to give citizens the opportunity to interact and participate in the European construction, developing a European identity, based on recognised common values, history and culture, enhancing mutual understanding between European citizens respecting and celebrating cultural diversity, while contributing to intercultural dialogue.

"City Zen" will take place in five different countries: France, Belgium, Italy, Hungary, and Latvia. Its overall idea consists into building of sustainable European society around the topic of responsible consumption. This project has double objective:

• to identify at a local level the expectations, practices and initiatives of the European citizens

• to present what the European Union can bring and develop in this field.

Active Citizenship and Responsible Consumption of the City Zen

City Zen general idea is base on active implementation of the European citizens in decision making: both on local and European level. To take sides, defend ideas, think, analyse, understand, propose, are examples of active citizenship. Working to exchange with the citizens of the members states, to meet euro deputies, to exchange ideas with them is act of European citizenship.

Responsible consumption is a part of Sustainable Development- the future of Europe and the world. Get together to make propositions, search solutions this is being active European citizens. The goal of our project is to create a better environment for citizen by influencing political decisions toward a sustainable development.

Our better environment can be influenced by a responsible consumption within “ local and international transport, food consumption, energies, leisure and tourism, fashion and clothes, water”…

Pistes-Solidaires is a not for profit association set up in accordance with French Association Law (1901).

The objectives of the association are the development of exchanges in the social, cultural, educational and economic realms which promote personal, social and environmental respect.

Pistes-Solidaires defends the concepts joined together in The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Rio declaration of 1992.

As an association of popular education, Pistes-Solidaires supports the knowledge, competences and behaviors which promote justice and equality in an intercultural society and an interdependent world. It intends to increase public awareness of global problems and to demonstrate the potential for change. Furthermore, one of its challenges is to make it possible for people to understand the connections between their lives and those of the entire world.  

This statutory objective consisted of the keystone of all the actions which the association develops. We identify three major areas of work: 

• Intercultural education and youth mobility (intercultural education, European citizenship awareness, the inclusion of youth people with less opportunities within the actions of youth mobility)

• Fair trade (promotion, information, education)

• Sustainable tourism (co-development, education, raising public awareness)

The association employes six salaried members of staff who are supported by a CA of eight people (including four young people aged 30, 28, 24, 22 and 23 respectively) and nearly 70 members (including 48 young people under 25 years old)  who fully take part in the development of the association’s objectives. 

An active network people and partners reinforces our work in the Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur. An office in Marseille, the regional capital, supports our actions which are initiated our head office located at Fréjus (strategically located between the three major cities of the area: Nice, Toulon and Marseille).

Pistes-Solidaires is a member of the National Federation Léo Lagrange

Pistes-Solidaires is a founder member of the Euromed Federation

Pistes-Solidaires is a member of the Ana Lindh foundation for dialogue between cultures

Pistes-Solidaires is a member of the CESIE federation

Pistes-Solidaires is a member of COVACEQ (a collective for the promotion of fair trade)

Pistes-Solidaires is a regional coordinator of the European Voluntary Service (EVS) in the Alpes Côte d’Azur Provence

Pistes-Solidaires works in partnership with le Collège Coopératif Provence Alpes (research, engineering, social work and interdependency co-development)

Pistes-Solidaires works in partnership with Aix-Marseille University (political science)

Pistes-Solidaires works in partnership with Toulon University 

Pistes-Solidaires is a member of the national think-tank on the participation of young people with fewer opportunities in the Youth in Action programme. 

Pistes-Solidaires benefits from the youth agreement of the French ministry of Health, Youth and Sports. 

Pistes-Solidaires is an approved coordinating association for both hosting and sending EVS volunteers.   

Pistes-Solidaires benefits from local subsidies based on triennial partnership conventions with the Var and the Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur Councils. 

Pistes-Solidaires has offices in Athens

Since 2003, Pistes-Solidaires has developed international actions and projects (Europe, EuroMed and world).

Originally a counter-movement in the framework of the European agricultural aiming at large-scale commercial farming, defending family farming, it was however never a farmers organization.

It rather aims at supporting a certain kind of agriculture, that we would presently call ‘sustainable agriculture’, i.e. ecologically, economically, socially and – so we like to add - culturally sustainable. And we try to work in a participative way. That is why our action group includes farmers as well as South-, environment and nature- , peace activists, and above all consumers. All of them, concerned citizens in action.

After ten years of purely voluntary input, we little by little got some professional staff, either by way of specific projects, or by a structural subvention from several ministries, among them the ministry of culture on the basis of our being a ‘movement’.

Presently our staff of six, all of them working part-time, is composed of persons with a background in agriculture, economics, administration, management, mass media and/or social action. A large part of their work consists of enabling and coordinating the group of volunteers, which WERVEL wants to remain.

We have worked and we work through:

• local groups (at the level of the five provinces and in Brussels)

• thematic groups (e.g. on agricultural policy, genetic modification, spirituality, agro forestry, soy and alternative local proteins)

• publications (quarterly magazine ‘Wervelkrant’, website, flyers, brochures, books)

• articles and interviews in mass-media

• research (see thematic groups)

• visits (i.a. bringing clients of farmers markets to farms, yearly tour in neighbouring countries)

• social action programmes (lately on food diversity, ‘think global, eat local’)

• networking, either in temporary coalitions with specific objectives (e.g. lobbying for changes in legislation) or in common structures (e.g. sustainable development, conscious consumption)

Our main concern is to enhance a local agriculture that is sustainable. We therefore try to motivate and to inform mainstream farmers as well as the ‘new farmers’ ( short food chain, community supported agriculture, transition, etc). We also stress the ‘food first’ idea. Of course if we can yield crops with multiple use (colza, hemp) we favour them.

If this type of agriculture is our final objective, this is not only for the sake of the survival of farming and the well-being of the farmers, but finally because of a certain perspective on society. We want to replace consumerism by an economy based on real needs. That is why we more and more have come to stress the consumers ’ point of view, and indeed their weight in changing their demand and finally the supply. In this respect, we still focus on food, but we also pay attention to derived products , e.g. soap, energy, textiles.

Goals :

• give the youth (13-30 years old) of the village possibilities to spend their free time by doing useful activities, to support bottom up initiatives of the young living in the village.

• give the same possibilities to our youth as other young have in the European Union

• multiply our knowledge to the yong people who live in rurale area

Values :

• to give possibility for 3 young people to work in fulltime in our organisation

• our experince in youth work in rural area

• our international experience

Organization founded in 2001, Italie, Palermo.


Goals :


1. Promote intercultural development


2. Act as a bridge between research and the application of knowledge


3. Apply reciprocal communication in order to consolidate peace and democracy

4. Abolish every form of discrimination and promote social inclusion and equal opportunities


5. Promote global awareness and responsibility towards the application of human rights


6. Facilitate the growth of people and organisations, with particular attention to youth, through grassroots development

Values :


We believe strongly in the notions of interculturality and empowerment which ensures that
we work well within multi-nationality projects
Major problem faced by their locality blocking the path towards a sustainable future :
Involve people living outside the world of dialogue and intercultural.

Gulbene municipality

Gulbene municipality is one of the stable self-government on the North Vidzeme in Latvia. Development of entrepreneurship, culture, education, medicine service, tourism, road infrastructure and informative infrastructure favor welfare for Gulbene region 25 496 inhabitants. Gulbene municipality includes 13 village administration territories and Gulbene city administration territory.

The main objectives of Gulbene municipality are:

Create bases for sustainable development of Gulbene municipality territory in the Vidzeme region, coordinate and counterbalance region`, municipality`, society and entrepreneurs’ interests in economical, social and environment sectors. Provide a development of education infrastructure in the village and guarantee corresponding environment for all society groups to knowledge. Provide a high quality of communal and social life service for local society. Provide society with high culture and art events. Elevate inhabitant’s motivation to participate in the region culture life and amateur performances. Provide opportunities of free time and relax for local society. Improve a social service and social aid to inhabitants and elevate social and economical integration. Elevate a health service and its approachability for inhabitants Elevate safety for local inhabitants. Support Entrepreneurship and tourism development. Create, coordinate and realize projects.

Gulbene municipality council works according the requirements of legislation. The main rule is the law “About self-governments”. Gulbene council finances and keeps 9 kinder gardens, 19 secondary schools, 1 special education school, Music school, Art school, Sport school, 19 libraries, 15 culture centers, 5 museums, 5 social centers, all communal infrastructure, health and family courts. Gulbene council is responsible about all social groups of region inhabitants. For the first, Social department looks for old people (65 – 90 years old), handicapped persons, poor people and families, children with unequal needs, unemployed supported them by money and materials. Many of them need psychological support.