The Maison Jean Monnet, located in the small hamlet of Houjarray, 45km west of Paris in the Yvelines, is where Jean Monnet lived and worked from 1945 until his death in 1979. It has been the scene of decades of efforts to unite Europeans. In this house was notably conceived the idea of the European Coal and Steel Community and drafted the Schuman declaration of 9 May 1950 – the founding act of the European community.
The Maison Jean Monnet is today a museum and a place of remembrance of the European construction, under the responsibility of the European Parliament. The European Parliament decided in 1982 to acquire the house and to make it a place of remembrance open to the public in which everyone can come and revitalise at the very origins of the European project. The Maison Jean Monnet is open all year round, admission is free and an interactive exhibition allows visitors to discover Jean Monnet and his legacy the very place where it was built.
The Maison Jean Monnet also receives numerous school visits every year, allowing high school students and apprentices to familiarize themselves with the history of European construction and the role of the founding fathers. Finally, the house regularly serves as a meeting place for European leaders who find in this cottage steeped in history a source of inspiration for the future of Europe.
Recently the Jean Monnet House became also a training center for the European Parliament and in April 2023 it hosted a workshop on "European Supranational Democracy as a Model for Citizens' Participation Beyond Borders" which paved the way to the Vth Edition of the Supranational Democracy Dialogue.
The Democracy and Culture Foundation
The Athens Democracy Forum (ADF) grew from a 2-hour meeting in Athens in 2012 to a world -wide meeting of minds on Democracy today.
In 2018 the originators of the idea for the Forum estimated that the issue of democracy vs authoritarianism would become one of the major global points of contention. Even more, it was considered that democratic institutions would face their greatest challenge within the very countries they were operating in. There was, therefore, an urgent need to move beyond the talking to acting. It was thus that the Democracy and Culture Foundation was created.
Designed by McKinsey the Foundation’s strategy is based on the simple impact chain of
THINK - TALK - DO
During the year DCF carries out a series of events on current issues and challenges. These are organized under the principles and practices of deliberative democracy and
aim to provide specific policy recommendations that are replicable and scalable. Results are then presented and further debated at the ADF, with the Forum itself serving as a ground for the cultivation of new ideas, the design of new events, the cultivation of new networks of people and minds. ADF thus serves both as an originator of ideas/issues and as a forum for debate, in a virtuous circle, which may be termed “From ADF to ADF”.
As many events occur in Athens, the city acts as a virtual incubation lab. And properly so since Athens can be looked upon as being the South of the Global North and the North of the Global South.
At present our programmatic areas are the following:
1. Democracy and technology in the era of digitalization and AI
2. Democracy and the pandemics – coronavirus, climate change, migration
3. Democracy and Culture –as a catalyst for economic and social development
4. Democracy and Business – Setting and implementing a new charter of ethics and values for the business community and its collaboration with the State.
The G100 is an empowered group of 100 women leaders from across the world, leading 100 global wings, supported by G100 He for She champions (Denim Club) and 100 Country Chairs for powerful advocacy, awareness & impact across governments and organisations for a gender equal future.
G100 comprises a league of luminaries of eminence and excellence including Nobel Laureates, Heads of States, Ministers, Businesswomen, Philanthropists, Investors, Entrepreneurs, CEOs, Corporate and Community Leaders – a powerful Group of women leaders and achievers from all walks of life who wish to give back and move us all forward as architects of the future.
G100 is an action + think tank that comprises 100 wings/sectors, led by 100 Global Chairs respectively, who further nominate 100 country chairs in 100 countries for global reach and impact, Among the panelists we are honored to have the political analyst and blogger Mar Introini, G100 Global Chair for Networking. Prof. Susanna Cafaro is Italy Country Chair for Networking.
The SDD Conference is proud of supporting and being supported by G100, as well as by the Jean Monnet Module EU Pro Women held by prof. Claudia Morini, fostering Women’s empowerment through education on civic participation.
CesUE takes its name from a previous non-profit association, Cesue Centro Studi, documentazione e formazione sull'Unione Europea, from which it also inherits the human capital accumulated in fifteen years of project, training, scientific and consulting experience.
Cesue was founded in 1995 in Florence by a group of academics, professionals and experts on European integration with the aim to spread information, foster debates, research and training on issues related to the European integration process.
Research, education and civil activism as businesses
We have decided to make a business out of it because it is quite an achievement to put academic, didactic, artistic and communicative professional skills at stake in the name of the complex multilevel society that every human being today is part of. Our only profit is the cultural and political growth of an intercultural society united within the framework of multilevel democratic institutions. Our mission is to really contribute to its development, transforming it from the hope of an ethical value to a widespread need and interest leading to induce subsequent behaviors. Our bet is to take part in the construction of a world open to changes, oriented towards responsibility and the enhancement of diversity.
EURACTIV is an independent pan-European media network specializing in EU policies, aiming to spark and fuel policy debates between stakeholders: governments, business, civil society. The EURACTIV network, made up of independent and integrated offices, provides free localized EU policy news in 12 languages, reaching 800,000 readers across Europe and beyond each month.
EURACTIV is recognized for its independence and for its multilingual and impartial journalism. The national teams are autonomous: they broadcast local and original news. Our guiding principles are efficiency, transparency and balance.
Within the framework of this general editorial line, EURACTIV ITALIA has decided to provide a precise contribution to building a less radicalized and more constructive narrative of the relationship between Italy and the European Union, in a spirit of contribution and service to the developing European society.
Established as Fondation Internationale Triffin / Triffin International Foundation in 2002, at the Université Catholique de Louvain, to preserve the intellectual heritage of the Belgian/US economist Robert Triffin (1911-1993) and to address the new problems of our global economy in light of his ideas, since September 2015 it has been renamed Robert Triffin International (RTI).
The RTI current aims are threefold:
- to promote research on the life and work of the economist Robert Triffin attaching particular value to the role he played as an advocate of European integration.
- to foster the debate on a necessary reform of the international monetary system, reaching out to a wide audience, and especially to the young generations, with workshops, seminars, conferences, lectures and printed and electronic publications, etc.
- to support education in the field of monetary integration through the Robert Triffin Chair at the University of Louvain-la-Neuve.
Democracy Without Borders advocates an integrated approach to democracy promotion that spans across all levels, from the local to the global and includes the dimensions of representation, participation and deliberation.
Based on a Theory of Change, Democracy Without Borders promotes global democracy, global governance and global citizenship. Progress in these areas is mutually reinforcing and we look at their intersections.
Democracy Without Borders is collaborating with numerous international partners and has a growing number of national chapters. We expand further to promote our cause more effectively across the world’s regions. Together with partners Democracy Without Borders runs global campaigns and programs. In particular, we promote the creation of a UN Parliamentary Assembly, a UN World Citizens’ Initiative and a UN Rapporteur on Democracy.
Members and volunteers are the energy fueling Atlas' ambitious vision of a united, equitable, free world. By joining our community of more than 23,000 people from more than 130 countries, you can become part of a historical first: the building of a global political movement.
But first, make sure you are aligned with our principles. Atlas is anchored in Equitism, and driven by the defense and promotion of the following three cardinal values:
- Equity is the idea that we all deserve equitable access to opportunities and rights, including LGBTQ+ rights, abortion rights, and more!
- Freedom is the idea that the people must have power, so democracy must be protected, advanced, and innovated.
- Unity is the idea that nation-states are an outdated concept and a democratic global governance is needed
The Democracy School was founded by Nico Andreas Heller in London in 2003. Due to the UK’s decision to leave the European Union, we relocated to Berlin (Germany) in 2017.
Between 2003 and 2013 we were active almost exclusively in England. During these formative years we focused on helping local politicians and public sector executives develop the political leadership capacity needed to address highly complex and often politically sensitive challenges effectively. From 2013 onwards the School began supplementing its public sector consultancy work with internally generated projects and over the next five years launched a number of ambitious international initiatives, including its European Leadership Initiative (ELI), WePolter! and the ICR Development Process. Whilst these initiatives allowed us to reach and support activists we would not otherwise have reached, it also signalled a fundamental change in our positioning and identity. If until 2013 we were essentially a client-driven public sector political research consultancy with a focus on leadership development, thereafter we rapidly developed into a non-governmental capacity builder, focused primarily on helping political activists, public intellectuals and artists develop their political/transformative practice.
The overarching goal of the REACT Project ‘Re-shaping the EU integration Agenda after the COVID Turmoil’ is to assess the impact of the measures taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic crisis on European governance as a whole and its legal system to raise awareness of the values and principles encompassing the European integration process among professionals, academia and the general public. Notably, departing from the research assumption that these measures have strengthened the EU integration process, implementing in an unprecedented way the principle of solidarity, the principle of loyal cooperation, and the principle of the rule of law, while also enhancing the EU autonomy with respect to States and with respect to other actors in the international arena, it will investigate how and to what extent changed relationships among EU institutions, and between them and States, have affected the governance of the Union in the short, medium and long term.
