The Europe Direct Centre of Luis Vives Foundation will organize in Madrid between 21 and 25 September the week "Connect to Social Europe", with a range of activities that reveal how to act and how to take part in the decision proccess of the European Union.

Fundación Luis Vives and its Europe Direct Centre organize a conference in Madrid with the aim of raising awareness of the possibilities of action and influence in the European Union. Connect to the Social Europe! will be held in Madrid between 21 and 25 September and is aimed at anyone interested in this topic, although the sessions are specially aimed at people who work or is a volunteer with NGOs.

85% of EU decisions affect the daily lives of citizens, and in fact largely determines the actions of NGOs through its expertise in social and environmental issues. Therefore, the themes of the conference are:

• Building Europe with citizens (September 21). The book of the same title will be presented in this event. It shows how the participation of citizens in the EU is not only possible and real, but also necessary.
• How can NGOs act and influence in the EU? (September 22). This workshop will debate how NGOs can deal with the EU and what mechanisms are available to influence in decisions taken at European level.
• What can an NGO to influence European environmental and energy policy? (September 23) It will examine competencies of the EU in  environment and energy issues, and what the current policy is.
• What can an NGO to influence European migration policy? (September 24). In this final session participants will discuss about which are the EU competencies in immigration matters, and what the current policy is.

Both the submission of Building Europe with citizens as the three symposia registration are free, but with limited places. This registration can be done online on the website of the Fundación Luis Vives. The first two events will take place at the European Commission Representation in Spain (Paseo de la Castellana, 46) and the other two in CentroCaixa, the social work of La Caixa (Arapiles, 15).