Berlin, 18 July 2025: Are We Europe and its partners are excited to announce the launch of FOCUS. Over the course of the next months, the online publication will compile a total of 28 multimedia stories from 19 EU countries. They will highlight the impact of the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights, helping Europeans to navigate and understand their fundamental rights.
From the rights of children with autism in Ireland to those of a Russian sex worker in Italy, from surveillance encroaching on the rights of climate protesters in France to a community outside Madrid who has been cut off from the power supply for five years. FOCUS stories explore what it means to have your rights protected, revealing how even within the EU – a privileged context when it comes to human rights, democracy and the rule of law – the realities of day-to-day life are often much more complex than they appear on paper.
The medium to long-form multimedia reportages in FOCUS are the results of a series of Media Fellowships, ran by Are We Europe. They were aimed at developing the skills of journalists from all over the EU to report on people-centred stories, highlighting the workings of fundamental rights and the Charter.
Beyond its legal function, the EU Charter represents and expresses the identity, values, and unity of our political community, and should be the foundation for a shared vision of the future. That’s why it’s important that we become familiar with it. The FOCUS publication marks a starting point towards building awareness of how the EU Charter impacts our lives, and points directions for how it could be further strengthened.
The FOCUS publication can be found online at focus.areweeurope.com. At the end of 2025, an exhibition will showcase selected multimedia stories to the public. A print publication will also be launched, collecting selected stories and contents from the project. All stories and project-related activities will be communicated on Are We Europe’s social media channels and the official FOCUS project website over the next months.
About FOCUS
FOCUS is a project funded by the European Commission’s Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV) programme, in collaboration with Democracy Reporting International (Germany) Alda – European Association for Local Democracy (Italy), Verfassungsblog (Germany), European Youth Parliament (Germany), and Are We Europe (the Netherlands).
The project aims to raise public awareness of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, its value, and the capacity of key stakeholders for its broader application. Find out more about the project here: https://focuscharter.eu/