The European Centre of Citizenship Excellence

ended

"The EU faces problem with the perception of European democracy. In Slovakia, there is a need to present the EU to the society as a unique grouping of several Member States and to justify its legitimacy. In line with the objectives of the E+ program, this project aims to contribute to support for the development of people through learning, and the promotion of innovation and the strengthening of European identity and active citizenship. The important group for educating in civic and democratic awareness, European identity and active citizenship is the youth. The civic participation is developed through education, there is a need for quality education in secondary schools. We respond to this need through the project. Based on the our academic and research activities, we perceive the requirement of secondary-school teachers to educate them professionally in the current problems of European democracy, politics, and to provide them with an expert structure. The main goal of the project is to strengthen the competences of young people in the field of European democracy through supporting secondary-school learning in the EU and democracy issues. The main method applied through the project activities, in order to fulfill this goal, is to transfer and disseminate our expertise to secondary-school teachers, who cover the EU & democracy issues in their teaching, in order to incorporate this knowledge they gain to their teaching process and contribute thus to raising the European identity and civic participation of the young. The aim of the ""European Centre for Civic Excellence"" (ECCE), the main output of the project, is to support teachers in developing their EU expertness and teaching competences, and thus transferring the gained knowledge through the teaching process to their students contributing thus to their future lives of EU citizens. Therefore, the topics contained in the project activities cover the most critical issues of today´s EU politics and democracy."