EurActiv Awards to recognise national debates on Europe[fr][de] 

Nominees may be individuals, organisations, companies or public bodies which have implemented ideas for debating, promoting or questioning European policies or initiatives at national level. 

EU communication policy needs "truly decentralised actions", explained EurActiv Publisher Christophe Leclercq, adding that it was not just about "going local" but "starting local". The EurActiv Media Network already promotes debate in both national capitals and Brussels, and wants to highlight other examples with its awards. 

Radovan Geist, editor of EurActiv Slovakia, underlined that the EU institutions alone could not enlarge, deepen nor animate the European public debate. Rather, they needed the active involvement of member states and stakeholders to make policymaking more transparent, democratic and legitimate. 

"Debate is the lifeblood of democracy," agreed Margot Wallström, the EU commissioner in charge of the bloc's communication strategy. Welcoming EurActiv's initiative, she said "it is only when the European debate is anchored nationally, regionally and locally that European citizens will engage, participate and seek to be informed about EU decisions which concretely affect them".

The 'EurActiv Awards for Debating Europe Nationally' were symbolically launched on 9 May during Europe Day. A number of nominations have already been received in several languages. Nominees range from Irish grassroots online debating forum Politics.ie, Turkish association of women entrepreneurs Kagider, the Belarusian-European cooperation and partnership project team, as well as individual nominations, including Jochen Bittner and his ZEIT-blog. 

Nominations for the award can be submitted until 15 September through a dedicated EurActiv Awards Blog  in any of the following ten languages: Bulgarian , Czech , English , French , German , Hungarian , Polish , Romanian , Slovakian  and Turkish . 

This autumn, judges will select three winners for each EurActiv portal and five pan-European finalists. The winner of the grand prize will be announced at a ceremony in Brussels on 12 November.

EurActiv is launching the awards as part of a year of initiatives to celebrate its tenth anniversary, as well as the fifth anniversary of its CrossLingual network of ten country portals.