In its latest 2025 impact report for the Erasmus+ funding program, the EU has recognized our solidarity project—“Skills for democracy. Engagement made easy!“—as an example of good practice. That’s great!

Subvertising and „communication guerrilla“ tactics offer a rich repertoire of forms of action for engaging politically with right-wing extremism in Europe. At the same time, right-wing extremists utilize these very techniques to gain tration in the me-dia. For this reason, we aim to launch a Europe-wide skill-share project focused on using communication guerrilla tactics to counter right-wing extremism. And we are looking for partners for that.

We’ve developed a learning workshop for Erasmus+ grant applications, focusing on youth participation projects. It consists of eight 60-minute sessions. The idea is that you first read the indicated pages in the linked Erasmus+ program guide and then answer the questions. Ideally, you should complete the workshop together with the other members of your project group who want to submit the application. Over the eight sessions, you can work together to understand the Erasmus+ funding program and develop proposal concepts. You’ll probably need another one or two weekends to actually write your application.

To learn how to apply for EU cooperation projects, I traveled to Zakopane in Poland. There, I learned a lot about the goals and priorities of the funding program and how we can better measure our progress. And there was also a pool, a bowling alley, snow, and mountains.

The „Fossil Ad Ban! Gathering“ took place in Barcelona from Friday, September 12th to Sunday, September 13th, 2025. Activists, lawyers, scientists, NGO workers, and many others met there to develop plans to ban advertising for products that consume large amounts of fossil fuels. Participants came from the Democratic Republic of Congo, the USA, the UK, Portugal, Spain, France, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Austria, and Switzerland. We experienced a great deal, and we report on it here:

A little late, I spent two days at the „Ban fossil ads gathering“ in Barcelona. At this conference, a wide variety of people presented and discussed their work and strategies. The different strategies and tactics got me thinking. Where is the appropriate starting point? Local? Or national?

At the „ban fossil ads“ conference in Barcelona on Saturday, Geraldine Deade Tanakula from Scientist Rebellion DRC spoke about greenwashing in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She made it clear: There is no such thing as green capitalism for the energy transition. The exploitation of raw materials is destroying Congo, while the profits go to the global north. And the people of Congo are also being ripped off with greenwashing. And our author had an insight into his own racist thought patterns.

The alarm clock rang at 4:30 a.m. Why? The Ban Fossil Ads conference in Barcelona! After a 17-hour train ride, we finally arrived. The meeting was organized by Subvertisers International and the Fossil Free campaign from the Netherlands. They invited people from all over the world. The aim was to bring together people who are involved in outdoor advertising in the broadest sense and who are working to abolish advertising and sponsorship for fossil fuel products and services.

International encounters are an important step toward grassroots peacebuilding. We want to work together to overcome the hurdles in the EU application process. The EU and many other funding bodies support this. However, many are put off by the lengthy applications and lengthy funding guidelines. We want to change that! With the Small Scale Partnership „Getting Ready for Europe: The Peace Project Lab.“ As part of this partnership, we will conduct workshops, writing workshops, and job shadowing in Erasmus+ projects for 18 month. Aplycation date is february 2026. Project-Start is supposted to be in late 2026. Main activies are supposted to be in 2027 in Berlin.