We have moved, but we are still alive

Hi to all our fellow followers,

the Rock the Union tour blog is now on www.rocktheunion.eu in case you thought we would be dead, we are still alive ;)

Find us there!

Thank you!

Why there were no news

It has been a while since the last post. The reason for this is simple. There was just nothing to say. The summer vacation in Europe lasted long and it took a while until we finally got some answers. Not all are positive but many are.

Due to the delay we decided to postpone the start of the tour. Instead of September 15th we will start the tour in October. The concrete date is not yet confirmed, but we are planning to leave in the two weeks of October.

By the beginning of the next week we will have the new route and we will further more have the new dates.

For organisations and Europe Direct offices who want to collaborate please feel free to contact us, every organisation promoting the European Parliament elections in May 2014 is welcome.

Companies who are interested in sponsoring the Rock the Union tour are asked to contact us in order to discuss a sponsorship agreement.

For everything else, we will keep you updated here on this blog in the coming week.

21 days to go!

Where we stand:

The Rock the Union tour project was created June 9th 2013. 

It was started June 10th 2013. 

It has since become a known project for more than 1700 followers in the different social networks. 

It attracted until now 

• the President of the European Movement International, 
• the head of the European think tank European Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin and  
• the President of the European Economic and Social Committee, 
• 14 European civil society organisations and 

 the organisational support of members of the administration from 

• the European Commission, 
• the European Council, 
• the Council of European Municipalities & Regions. 

The problem:

We have sent out 153 emails to Europe Direct Offices and received 3 answers within the last 9 weeks, of which only one is officially willing and actually happy to support the Rock the Union tour project and its organisation. Maybe this is due to the holidays and the vacations. However, we think there should be more.

We wrote to the Committee of the Regions and did not receive one answer in 9 weeks, which we also blame on the vacation and hope to receive an answer soon.

We have sent out emails to the European Parliament administration to gain support the Rock the Union tour and hope that now after ten weeks of preperation and discussion we will be able to work together with the European Parliament in Brussels and the local offices all over the EU.

We have stated towards every European Union institution which we have contacted, that we are not asking for money, but for organisational support, in exchange for a co-operation agreement. 

We got three times the answer, that there are open calls for grants which can be used for the Rock the Union tour. 

We have made clear that we are not interested in using the EU institution's money, tax payers money. 

We have explained that we are not interested to give anti-European actors in the current situation the possibility to attack the EU and the Rock the Union tour because of financial support. 

We have explained that direct financial support for the Rock the Union tour from the EU institutions will only be used for euro sceptics to show "...another waste of money, which is obviously a tour of the EU institutions to show off about how great the EU is." (recent comment in an email of a Euro sceptic).

We are not interested in the money of the European institutions. 

We do not want our reputation to be a creative mix between a used cars dealer and an insurance salesperson. 

•  We do not distribute flyers or high gloss magazines;
•  We are non partisan towards any European Political party. 

We are seeking the public debate in the whole European public with every citizens' interests. 

• We do not want to promote federalism and 
• we do not want to tell anybody whom to vote for. 

This is not a choice. 

It is a need. 

We want to ensure that everybody, whose interest is the development of the European Union towards a political Union, has a chance to communicate his or her opinions and ideas.

We guarantee a broader public than any other political public happening in the European Union will gather together in the coming ten months. 

The Rock the Union tour offers every co-operation partner the possibility to show 

who they are and what they are doing 

• online 
• off-line 
• in print, 
• radio and 
• TV. 

We communicate the messages of our partners and offer them the chance to communicate their messages during our events. 

We guarantee an audience and the attention which is needed to kick-off the debate about Europe on the  

• local, 
• European and  
• global level.

We know that the Rock the Union tour is dependent on the support of the European communicators. 

This tour is not manageable without the help of every 

• European Union institution, 
• their members,

• European region,
• municipality and 
• and city;

•  the European civil society 
• its member organisations
• their members

• European citizen.

Rock the Union - together we change Europe!

Contact:

Rock the Union

Rocktheunion14@gmail.com

http://rocktheunion14.blogspot.be/p/the-team_18.html

http://www.ulule.com/rock-union/ 

Have a great time listening! That is our news from today! ;)

Rock the Union Interview: Hans Mund July 13 Spotlight on Europe UCC98.3FM Cork Ireland by Spotlightoneurope on Mixcloud

It's the end of vacation!

Yes it's true. For most of us work will start again tomorrow. Kind of weird considering the last weeks, isn’t it?

As for Rock the Union this means we can get going.

In the last 3 weeks we have been working on completing the team, making contacts and writing emails to companies, potential patrons and a lot of supporters from all over Europe. We are looking forward to have the first replies this week. 

Let yourselves be surprised. 

There are a lot of interesting and really great people and organisations we wrote to and thanks to you all, your interest, and your support we are already further than we could have imagined. With you and your help we will be able to create a great tour to change Europe together!
Looking forward to see you all from in 26 days on!

Rock the Union! Together, we change Europe!

Hans

Fera Gusto

There is not much to say for today, except for this:
We finally finneshed our AISBL application. We will apply tomorrow and await the confirmation to be an International Non for-Profit Association.
This means we are a legal entity which has the right to become officially sponsored. As soon as the AISBL status is confirmed, we are allowed to provide donation receipts, for funding. Besides it means that you can become a member of the Rock the Union AISBL. This gives you the right to vote on what we are supposed to do together, to change Europe.

More about this in a few days ;)

Have a great day, for our overseas readers and a #rockthebed good night, sleep tight! for our readers in Europe!

Gut Ding will Weile haben - Rome wasn't build in a day.

Believe it or not, I am fully aware of the situation.

"You know that it is just one months, until you want to start?!" - I have heard this sentence quite often in the last days when talking about the Rock the Union tour.

We are making sure that none of us will miss the bus.
There are people working on this project. By now we are eight people who dedicate their free time or in my case my whole time, to this project. We are discussing with Europe Direct offices, cities, representatives, and possible patrons; we write emails and call people.
We have little successes every day: news paper articles, people publicly talking about the Rock the Union tour, emails which are replies to requests for support or sponsorship, telling us that our matter is forwarded for closer consideration to the responsible units.
It is all nothing big. It’s step by step; one after the other, but it shows, that Rock the Union tour is something which is worth considering.
In times when supporting a pro-European awareness raising tour is a political statement, while keeping in mind that the whole continent is on vacation or summer work, all this is good and shows great progress.


We know we will not miss the bus,
because it is yours, hers, his, theirs, mine, our tour.
It is time for Rock the Union; we are at the point where we, the citizens of the European Union, have to change Europe. We all see this every day. But instead of hiding behind the "I am just one person..."-fear, we all, each and every one of us needs to collaborate; 

We need to work together
No matter if Cypriots with Germans, Italians with Romanians, Czechs with Slovaks, English with French, Flemish with Wallonian, Catalans with Spanish, we are all citizens of the European Union; we are all people living on the same continent.
The Rock the Union team members figured that collaboration on this basis is the most human behaviour:

If you can solve a problem better if you work together with other people, you are stupid if you try it alone.

The Rock the Union tour has supporters from the whole world, friends outside every men made border. We are already collaborating and you are welcome to join!

Rock the Union – Together we change Europe!

Have a good night!