European Alternatives

European Alternatives is a civil society movement promoting democracy, equality and culture beyond the nation state, with a particular focus on youth. It has extensive experience in activities targeting policy makers, civil society, researchers, the press and the general public. This experience has been developed through its campaigning on issues such as Media Freedom (it ran an ECI on media pluralism), human rights, Roma rights, migration or, in particular, youth issues; through its innovative and creative activities such as the annual TRANSEUROPA festival happening in many cities simultaneously and engaging hundreds of youth organizations; or the Citizens Pact for European Democracy created with thousands of young people across the continent in advance of the European elections. Through over 7 years of activity it has developed a very large network of youth activists (over 10000) in over 15 countries, and organizes debates, workshops, trainings and other activities on a weekly basis. European Alternatives has won prizes from the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee, the Charlemagne Foundation and the German National Agency for civic education for its work, thus showing the innovative, participative and high quality of its activities. For up-to-date information, please visit the website of European Alternatives.

Niccolo Milanese is Chair of European Alternatives, where he chairs the transnational and advisory boards. He is also part of the elected steering committees of the Cultural Innovators Network – a trans- Mediterranean network of cultural activists and hybridizers – and the Europe+ campaign for a more democratic European Union. He has consultancy experience with the British Council, the Goethe Institute and with the Open University, and prior to starting European Alternatives worked editing poetry and literature magazines, as a freelance writer and as an academic researcher. He was educated in Cambridge and Paris, where he was an Entente Cordiale Scholar.