Education for active citizenship in national and European context

Why 2013 European Year of Citizens? Not only because we celebrate the 20th birthday of EU citizenship from when it was launched by the Maastricht Treaty. The people have to know the rights of EU citizens that are enshrined in the Treaty of European Union and complement national rights. If people know about these rights and use them, they benefit as an individual. We focus in this paper on the active component of citizenship (in terms of participation, interaction, accountability and leadership) and on the imperative of education for active citizenship as part of the paradigm of participatory culture that we face nowadays. The paper presents European context, a conceptual approach of active citizenship and education for active citizenship, focusing also on Romanian specific context. We mention that a significant part of the information from this paper was used and enriched during the project 'Empowering youth Leadership for Democracy Sustainability' RO-13-E9-2013-R1, financed by Youth in Action, and developed as main applicant by Pro Global Science Association, Romania.