Common ground. Building a new relationship with the United Kingdom

Project's name: Common ground. NDICI FPN FPI/2022/439-669_Building a new relationship with the United Kingdom

The main objective of this ambitious project is to provide a positive background to the new relationship of the EU with the UK, by changing the perception of the EU in the UK through the framing of the values underpinning the EU as being similar to the values underpinning British society. We call them ‘shared values’. These can form the basis of a new relationship between the people of the UK and EU member states.

The project envisages four specific objectives related to each Work Package (WP):

1. Understanding and engaging with EU and UK Citizens;
2. Engaging with and developing shared values/ understanding between CSOs in the UK;
3. Promoting to key stakeholders and UK/EU citizens our “shared values”, combined with the stories of lived experience of EU citizens in the UK;
4. Promoting the sustainability of the actions after project’s ending.

The Action will pursue an ambitious outcome, which will be to increasingly perceive the EU and its values as positive, to recognize EU citizens in the UK as a positive European influence in British Society and to increase the collaboration between UK and EU CSOs and their beneficiaries.

The impact will be for the UK to become a stable and close partner for the EU, and for the EU citizens to live in the UK without threat to the rights and their freedoms.

The target groups will be UK CSO’s working in the field of citizens’ rights, migrants’ rights, European integration and community cohesion, particularly in London, Manchester and in the Midlands (from Birmingham to Peterborough).

Final beneficiaries of this project will be mainly EU citizens living in the UK under the EU Settlement scheme: 6 million people have successfully applied to the EU Settlement Scheme to retain their citizens’ rights under the WA, but significant challenges remain such as the digital nature of the scheme, the exposure to the hostile environment, access to services, with an intersection with racial justice.

These outputs are aimed to be achieved through the services of:

• National Survey
• Territorial Focus groups
• Brief policy paper
• CSOs thematic mapping in target areas 
• Online Working Groups
• Communication Strategy
• Grow influence of CSOs
• Campaigns and Events
• Evaluate impact of CSOs influence through advocacy work
• Promoting networking within UK and at EU-level to enhance long-lasting cooperation beyond project’s life