COMPASS EUROPE

COMPASS Europe: Civic Education and Dialogue for Europe’s Future is a pan-European initiative supporting those who help citizens make sense of Europe as it faces overlapping pressures and hard choices. Across the continent, people are living with the consequences of systemic crises – war at Europe’s borders, climate pressure, economic strain, technological disruption, and declining trust in democratic institutions. These challenges are often discussed at the EU level, but they are felt locally, in classrooms, neighbourhoods, workplaces, and communities. Many citizens experience Europe as distant or difficult to grasp, even when its decisions shape their everyday lives.

COMPASS Europe starts from the conviction that civic education and dialogue are essential democratic infrastructure. The project focuses on civic educators – teachers, youth workers, civil society practitioners, and public educators – because they act as connectors between policy and lived experience. Through the well-tested NECE model, COMPASS Europe brings these educators together with policy experts, local actors, and researchers to explore key EU priorities such as security, climate resilience, migration, technological change, and democratic governance. Over the course of the project, COMPASS Europe will convene online conversations, in-person labs, and two large pan-European festivals – spaces designed for dialogue, collective learning, and shared orientation around European challenges. Participants are supported to take what they learn back into their own contexts, adapting methods and insights to schools, communities, and local civic spaces across Europe.

The project runs from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2027.

GO BACK