European Free Mobility and Participatory Democracy: Knowledge andDigital Technology as a Bridge

Over the last decade, before the Covid-19 pandemic emergency, the share of EU mobile citizens increased by 0.9% – a growth thatmay have been favored by the consolidation of the beneficial conditions fortified by the European Single Market’s four freedoms,namely, the free movement of people, goods, services, and capital. Encouraged by the possibility to travel freely, study, work, andlive across borders (and benefitting from the chance to access better prices, higher environmental and social standards, as well asmore comprehensive consumer protection), European citizens of all ages have been increasingly moving across EU borders.However, practical experience shows that there is still much to be done at the local level to make European mobility sustainablewithout creating severe difficulties in maintaining and achieving fundamental rights (work, vote, education, information, assistance,and free movement). Based on an identikit of mobile citizens within the EU, it is assumed that they can play a role in facilitating thepath of social cohesion both at the level of individual states and in the common European area. To demonstrate this, this chapterpresents two international initiatives coordinated by Italian institutions, both supported by the European Rights, Equality andCitizenship (REC) Program.