The Hungarian Europe Society as a non-governmental and non-partisan organisation, intends to be involved in the ongoing international dialogue on the future of liberal democracies. The core of its interest and activities – although not exclusively – is the European Union and the Hungarian membership inside the Union. Its objective is to represent and promote the idea of a united Europe, and European common values, in Hungary and abroad.

www.europesociety.hu/en

The European Civic Forum is a transnational network that brings together over 100 associations and NGOs across Europe and is actively working to promote civic participation. Facing the ever growing civic and political disaffection across Europe, it is more critical than ever to enable citizens’ engagement into a collective project and the emergence of a European public space where the role and influence of civil society are fully recognized though the setting up of a genuine European civil dialogue.

www.civic-forum.eu

Pedro is an MA student in International Relations, at the moment writing a thesis on 21st century Portuguese Foreign Policy, its party cleavages and the lack of its democratic accountability. A great deal of his academic background was focused on intercultural communication and civic and political participation; he was President of NERI-FLUP [International Relations Student Group, part of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Porto] until last year. He now holds the following positions: students representative in several managerial bodies of the Faculty; he is also a Young Global Advocate for justice and citizenship being a member of the project “Challenging the Crisis” – Promoting Global Justice and citizens’ engagement in a time of uncertainty, run by the NGO IDEA and financed by the EU. Pedro is or has participated in projects, intensive courses and summer schools on the European integration process, democracy, civic and political participation, global education, development cooperation, both in Portugal and abroad.

Of British origin, I am currently working at the National Research Council in Rome.  Over the past months, I have been working on privacy rights in the EU, specifically on the controversial right to be forgotten.  I am now looking forward to expanding my knowledge about the field in Berlin and gaining some practical tools to put policy into action!

I am a feminist and an environmentalist, using feminist methods for on-going self-transformation. My current paid job is with the Seattle to Brussels Network, and has a focus on trade justice. Up to 2014 my professional life usually involved working in the intersection of international development and gender/women’s rights (mainly in Central America and Middle East).

I am active in various social, economic and environmental justice collectives in Europe including European Greens in London, Women in Development Europe, European Alternatives, and Ecoar Global. In addition to the above, I am very interested in eroding the economic growth dogma and thus enthusiastic about the idea of degrowth – I’d like to help sensitize people about a new lifestyle that doesn’t revolve around consumerism.

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We created IndieHosters to provide Free Software as a Service to the
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indiehosters.net

Libela.org is a feminist portal about gender, sex and democracy issues dedicated to monitoring reality and to the questioning of democratic and social practices from a gender perspective, with an emphasis on larger visibility of social, political and cultural engagement of women and marginalized groups in the society. Our mission is deconstructing gender stereotypes and sexism that can be found in mainstream media and critically analyze reality supported by media from a feminist perspective. LIBELA’s mission is also to became a platform where young journalists could be further educated. But not restricting itself only on journalists, it speaks for and to all motivated citizens who participate in its creation thus gaining knowledge in journalism, developing a gender perspective and becoming motivated to investigate gender issues and express their own opinion about the world around us.

Christos Dellasoudas has a legal studies and economics background. He has worked as a lawyer and has been involved in various activist initiatives as well as conventional political parties. He is currently working as a parliamentary aide to Greek SYRIZA Member of Parliament Betty Skoufas. His main focus is on poverty alleviation and economic empowerment and emancipation. He is a proponent of Basic Income and seeks ways to raise awareness and support research on the subject. Throughout the crisis he has participated in a variety of local projects like the Katerini Social Solidarity Kitchen (food collection and distribution) and Pieria Exchange Network.

Felipe lives in Sevilla (Spain) and is member of ZEMOS98, an cultural and political initiative which works and researches about free culture, social innovation, new media and informal education. ZEMOS98 has recently coordinated a european project within the context of the Doc Next Network and with the title: “Radical Democracy: Reclaiming the Commons” to foster through media some social struggles related to the Commons from the UK, Turkey, Poland and Spain. Felipe is also a video-activist with more than 50 remixes and video-mashups about the political context in Spain. Felipe is also a Star Wars fan and a proam tennis player.ZEMOS98 is an initiative which works and investigates on contemporary narratives, free culture and social innovation.

ZEMO98 believes in:

• culture as an element for social transformation and not just as entertainment.
• education as something which can happen anytime and anywhere.
• mutual support networks and the social economy.
• experimentation (on a formal level and also on a content-level).
• remix as a tool to deconstruct the dominant messages.
• mediation as a pedagogical tool.
• media and digital literacy.

www.zemos98.org

DemNet’s vision is a world based on the responsible and sustainable relationship of self-organised citizens and their communities respecting human dignity. DemNet’s mission is to facilitate and strengthen cooperation and self-organisation processes of community actors. DemNet designs its operation and activities on base of its core values and approaches: transparency, innovation, creativity, locality, and the participatory approach.

DemNet has worked for achieving its mission through:

• design and implement sustainable grant programmes
• build capacities of civil society organisations and other community actors
• promote sustainable financial and operational models
• empower civil society organisations
• support grassroots initiatives
• raise awareness and run information campaigns
• conduct public advocacy for the realisation of community value of human dignity, responsibility and sustainability.

DemNet has been providing “democracy support “since 1996 with a special focus on civil society development in Hungary and in countries of Western Balkans and Eastern Europe, also expanding its work to Arab Spring countries.

www.demnet.hu