Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona

The MEANING project was undertaken in order to address the political, institutional and social crisis that the European Union finds itself immersed. The new challenges posed by mass migration to Europe and the current debate on the future of Schengen, as well as citizens' increased feelings of alienation from EU institutions, are all putting the European integration project at risk and are rendering Europe's future more and more uncertain.

Metropolitan cities are currently rethinking their roles in the future governance of the EU, and meanwhile 70% of EU decisions are implemented by sub-national governments, which makes a more extensive debate on citizen participation in the democratic processes at the local level particularly important.

With this in mind, the project's aim is to foster a more active approach to citizenship, from the local level all the way up to the European institutions. MEANING will help reinforce citizens' European identity via the building of subject-specific networks of European metropolitan cities and the exchange of experiences. It will also serve as a forum to debate Europe's political and institutional future, with a special focus on the role of metropolitan cities in European governance.