The great reception of this information day demonstrates the interest that local councils and regional organisations have in this type of European funding, which is currently very little present.
The Federation of Municipalities of the Region of Murcia (FMRM) held its first informational talk of 2024 this morning at the Economic and Social Council. Among the activities of its annual programme, the FMRM offers talks on various topics related to management in local public administration.
On this occasion, European projects have once again become the main focus of this organisation's day-to-day activities, as it is highly focused on this area, with the aim of bringing the possibility of European funding closer to all municipalities, as an opportunity to carry out transformation projects and connect local entities with other institutions, associations, and even companies, at a regional, national and international level.
The talk focused on the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV) Programme, which was attended by nearly 80 interested parties from local councils and social associations.
The opening of the talk was given by the Secretary General of the Federation, Manuel Pato, who took the opportunity to explain the reason why the Federation is involved in this type of action, one of the main reasons being that the organisation serves as a mechanism through advice, so that the town councils can obtain funding from Europe.
On the other hand, the person responsible for the development of the day was Ángela Martínez-Carrasco, a technician from the European Citizenship Point, specialized in the CERV Program, and belonging to the Ministry of Culture of the Government of Spain.
In the first part of her presentation, this European projects professional explained a European historical memory to put the audience in context, “Twinning of Towns” and “Networks of Towns”.
To bring all this information down to earth, the second speaker at the talk, José Luís Marco, sociocultural activities technician at Murcia City Council, told a success story about a program of this kind.
In the second part of the talk, Martínez-Carrasco explained the CERV calls, whose themes were: children's rights and child participation; preventing and combating gender-based violence and violence against children (DAPHNE); and gender equality.
Among the topics addressed by this programme line, one of the priorities is mental health, because as the Ministry technician explained, “the latest European studies determine that suicide is the second cause of death among young people.” In addition, these projects also aim to integrate the perspective of children's rights, and increase participation in budgets based on the needs of children.
The speakers were joined by José Martínez, deputy inspector of the Local Police of the Murcia City Council, who recounted the experience of the police force's participation in Equal projects, which deal with issues such as the fight against racism, discrimination and xenophobia, among others.
The President of the Federation of Municipalities, Víctor Manuel López Abenza, attended the event to close the event. He said that “the CERV Programme focuses on very important issues for the Town Councils, issues that directly affect people, real problems and solutions. Therefore, I invite you to make this talk not just a morning of meetings between local government workers and social organisations, but rather an exciting and motivating push for you to work on proposals to offer to the European Commission”. The representative of the Murcian councils concluded by stating that “the town councils of the region are demonstrating their commitment to the values of Europe and to their neighbours, because the local government has a lot to say”.
At 12:00, the event paused to join in a minute of silence in tribute to the Civil Guards who died in Cádiz.
