Our manifesto.
Over the last years, human rights, equality and social inclusion have begun to evaporate. Instead, populism has increased together with the rise of disinformation and fake news.
Poverty alleviation and human rights policies no longer have the desired effect. Striking factors of inequalities, for example the isolation of Roma and migrant children in public education, or depriving people with disabilities of their liberty in residential institutions, are not adequately addressed by mainstream discourses and policy-making. Perceptions are increasingly driving policies instead of evidences. Responding to this new environment requires new approaches.
Stakeholders representing different target groups and thematic fields all may face these challenges. At the same time, the current policy solutions do not necessarily represent a joint approach of organisations representing Roma inclusion, integration of people with disabilities, with a migrant background, homeless and others. Rather, policy development initiatives are often promoted in silos, focusing more on isolated target groups and thematic fields.
Recognising this emerging need, our objective is to develop new policy solutions both at EU and national level. Our services follow research findings that aim to better understand the reasons behind these developments. The conclusions are not conclusive, at the same time some preliminary results provide some possible ways forward.
At Bridge EU, we come from different policy fields and with a background in public administration (EU and national), civil society and the private sector. We want to use our experiences and views to address the current challenges. We build informal networks and platforms of civil society, international organisations, public administrations and private sector from across the EU, addressing the emerging needs, including the rule of law.
At Bridge EU, we want to respond to emerging challenges by developing new policy solutions. We should focus more on common challenges of people in need instead of isolating specific marginalised groups from each other and developing parallel policy measures. Certainly, the specific needs of some target groups should be part of the mainstream public policies and solutions.
What is the way forward?
Taking into account that issues around us are not necessarily fully explored, we aim for more research and dialogue with all relevant stakeholders. We hope that new policy approaches will be widely used in future European and national policy making.