United Citizens of Europe

United Citizens of Europe (UCoE) is a youth-led, transnational civic initiative and recognized NGO in Italy (associazione di promozione sociale), founded in 2020 in Strasbourg by three university friends during the COVID-19 pandemic. Born from the need to keep young people engaged with European issues when physical spaces disappeared, UCoE uses digital storytelling as a democratic practice, turning podcasts, articles, and social media into spaces for participation, dialogue, and co-creation. UCoE addresses a clear gap: while European decisions increasingly shape young people's lives, many feel disconnected from institutions and excluded from meaningful discussions. The organization translates complex EU policies, values, and debates into accessible formats, involving young people as active contributors rather than passive audiences. The podcast has reached over 30,000 listeners across Europe and beyond, with guests including MEPs, diplomats, university researchers, and representatives of major NGOs. Its Instagram page, followed by MEPs and large European organizations, consistently reaches thousands of young people per post. UCoE's reach is genuinely transnational: core collaborators are based in Italy, Belgium, Slovakia, Romania, Albania, Portugal, and France, and the Local Ambassadors programme extends its community from Portugal to Romania. The organization has also organized offline events on participatory urban planning and local democracy, and has actively supported and collaborated with multiple Erasmus+-funded projects.