Niccolo Milanese is co-president of European Alternatives, where he chairs the transnational and advisory boards. He is also part of the elected steering committees of the Cultural Innovators Network – a trans- Mediterranean network of cultural activists and hybridizers – and the Europe+ campaign for a more democratic European Union.

He represents the organisation in public, fundraises, is in dialogue with members and works on organisational development and strategic partnerships.

In my engagement I am really satisfied when I see the emergence of new collaborations between people in the spirit of transnationalism and experimentation. I am satisfied when we have provided people concerned with the current state of affairs with new avenues and possibilities to work together for change. I am satisfied when I see that we have changed the nature of the debate or thinking around a certain issue, trying to reframe it in transnational or transeuropean terms, including the importance of creative as well as political action.

At the TSI Stakeholder Meeting in Brussels in October 2014 he said on TSI and the European policy environment of the third sector:

“The important thing to establish are the unique ways the third sector acts and interacts with other sectors: this is the real challenge for the research on impacts.”

“Claiming that no European public sphere exists is now used as a favourite excuse by conservative politicians and academics who do not want to act. This is simply not true any more. Since the financial crisis struck, Europe is discussed by everyone every day at every barbers’ shop, in every coffee shop, in every community council meeting throughout the continent. But there are so few leaders that want to inhabit this European public sphere.”

@niccolomilanese