It is our pleasure to invite you to the conference, "Building the EU Citizen Pillar", jointly organised by ECAS and Euronews Development. The event will take place on 5 November 2012 at the European Economic and Social Committee, and it will bring together prominent speakers from EU Institutions, academia, and civil society.The conference follows the "ECI Link" project which held a series of events across Europe in 2012 aimed at presenting, discussing, and evaluating the first ever tool of transnational participatory democracy – the European Citizens' Initiative (ECIs) while giving the special attention to the Year of EU citizens in 2013 as 20 years after the creation of the Union citizenship there is neither sufficient debate nor clear consensus around its meaning and about its impact and potential. How can we make citizens aware about the notion of EU citizenship and the rights attached to it and how can they tangibly benefit from them?  How can we remove the obstacles that the new innovative instrument of ECI’s is facing, a tool with enormous potential to influence the European policy agenda but being hindered by technical problems?  How to raise the awareness around it?  The findings of the conference will contribute to better achieving of the objectives of the EU Year of Citizens in 2013 and will also further advance ideas of citizens’ involvement.  This high profile event is expected to be attended by over 200 participants and is free of charge. Translation will be provided in English, French and German.