On 18 November, 2025 AIE staff took part in the European Networking Seminar “Interchange between local and regional European governments on ECG and public policy”, organised by Deputaciò de Barcelona and held back-to-back with the European Days of Local Solidarity.

The event gave our Project Officers the opportunity to meet stakeholders from across Europe and discuss cooperation elements and the implementation perspectives of Global Citizenship Education as both an international endeavour and a regional and local level public policy.

The seminar was opened by Maria Eugenia Gay, Vice President of the Barcelona Provincial Council for Relations and the UN Agenda 2030, and by Manuel Szapiro, Director of the Representation of the European Commission in Barcelona.

Three more sessions explored Global Citizenship Education (GCE) from the three different perspectives:

  • Exchanging views among European local governments;
  • GCED in towns and rural areas;
  • Local GCED in cities and metropolitan areas.

On 19 November, the AIE Secretariat team moved to Zaragoza (Spain) to participate in the Seminar “Strengthening European Local and Regional Civil Society Organisations’ Networking on Global Citizenship Education”.

The event was organised by the Diputación de Zaragoza (Provincial Government of Zaragoza), an associate partner of the Gear-UP! Project.

The event focused specifically on Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) contribution to promoting Global Citizenship Education (GCE) across and beyond the EU.

With a specific focus on CSOs, the event provides a space for dialogue and networking on how Global Citizenship Education can be promoted as part of local public policy and social action.

Key concepts aimed to identify the major challenges and reflect upon possible solutions with a view to create impact, including:

  • elicitate the political commitment to articulate decision-making process through tailor-made participatory processes;
  • change the narrative about democracy and democratic values,
  • activate stronger relationships between CSOs and media;
  • use artificial intelligence and social media campaign to engage citizens and especially young people

In the afternoon session, AIE’ team was part of the Networking activities. Three networking workshops (1. European funding; 2. Good practices in Global Citizenship Education; 3. Synergies and cooperation) took place simultaneously in each time slot. Participants were divided into 3 groups and rotated between the 3 workshops, so that everyone could participate in every workshop. Finally, there was a presentation in a plenary session, including a dynamic of collective synthesis that allowed participants to highlight key takeaways from the day.

On 20 November, the AIE’ team attended the third GearUP! Steering Committee at the beautiful Salón de Recepción of the Ayuntamiento de Zaragoza, opened by Alfonso Mendoza, Councilor of Participation, representing the City Council of Zaragoza.

The meeting was particularly fruitful in evaluating the results achieved in the first two years of project implementation and in setting the forthcoming agenda of activities.

Through the GearUP! project, the AIE continues to expand its long-standing youth action in Western Balkan countries—adopting new methodologies, internationalising its outreach, and managing innovative financial support tools to strengthen the role of youth organisations and young people in sustainable development.

Open discussion and partners’ contribution on:
– Cluster A FINANCIAL SUPPORT TO THIRD PARTIES;
– Cluster B CAPACITY BUILDING AND NETWORKING ACTIVITIES;
– Cluster C GENDER EQUALITY;
– Cluster D CROSS CUTTING ACTIVITIES (Project management + meetings and events (Act. D1); – Communication and dissemination strategy and tools (Act D2); – Monitoring and evaluation (Act. D3); – Financial management and audit (Act. D4); – Mainstreaming and capitalisation (Act. D6).

Through the Gear-UP! project, the AIE continues to expand its long-standing youth action in Western Balkan countries—adopting new methodologies, internationalising its outreach, and managing innovative financial support tools to strengthen the role of youth organisations and young people in sustainable development.

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