For some of you it might be neccessary to travel to FNF14 on your own money, e.g. if you are an independent activist or your organization is (like most times) short on funding. But there is the possibility to get travel reimbursement from members of the parliament.
Every MEP may sponsor up to 110 visitors per year in groups larger than 10 people, if you belong to such a visitor group it is mandatory to participate in a tour through the parliament. How much money will be paid to the group members depends on the distance between the departure of the group and Brussels – usually you calculate the average distance if the group is spread throughout Europe. The subsidy is €0.09 per kilometre per visitor plus meal expenses of €40 per visitor. If a group comes from more than 200 kilometres away and stays overnight, additional €60 may be paid for hotel cost coverage.
In order to get the chance for subsidy it is neccessary to contact your MEP as soon as possible – because if all groups are already reserved, the game is over. Best is you explain to her or him what is FNF14, who you are and why it is important to you to visit Brussels, e.g. like this:
Dear MEP,
you may have heard about Freedom not Fear – The European Activist’s Conference in Brussels. FnF is sought to bring together NGOs, groups and individuals from all over Europe (and beyond) that have interest in civil rights and fight against the spread of surveillance policies. Another important aspect is to gain insights in how the EU and it’s institutions work together.
This year it will take place from 26th to 29th of September 2014. Last year, we had a lot of workshops around net neutrality, export controls on spyware, drones, e-Health and the European Data Protection Reform. There were around 50 activists participating and many fructile ideas we developed. FNF is free of charge, but to cover the travel costs and thus to be able to join FNF this year we would like to kindly ask you to invite us as a visitor group to the parliament for travel reimbursement. At the same time it would be really great to meet you and join into a discussion about the topics we work on at FnF. Please let us know if you need more information.
Of course: Best is if you already know a MEP, but in order to find parlamentarians in favor of digital rights topics you may have a look at wepromise.eu.