The creation of a summer school for European teenagers

This summer INE organised a European summer school for young people from Spain, Bulgaria and France to explore the idea of citizenship and cultural diversity, during an educational and interactive experience and through discussions aimed at producing innovative teaching tools.

European meeting in Veliko Turnovo (Bulgaria)

During the transnational meeting in Veliko Turnovo held from the 18 th to the 22 nd May as part of a project “Yes Europe”, the foundations for an active European citizenship school were decided by the three partners: Progesti@ from Spain, INE from France and the European Resources Centre from Bulgaria. This project with the support of the European Commission offers an original approach, pairing information and training to give young people a better understanding about the construction of Europe, the result of which has given the young people of today their own unique European identity. During this meeting, a press conference was organized with two regional TV channels and two local newspapers which allowed us to present the whole project to them and to guarantee a public presence. This meeting allowed us to plan the timetable in greater detail.

The competition “YES EUROPE”

The partnership launched a communication campaign aimed at young people with a Euro art and film competition in Bulgaria, Spain and France.

It’s very easy to take part: if you are between 14 and 17 years old, send us your original work a photograph or drawing - 20x30 cm, or a digital film 15 seconds long depicting European citizenship, with your full name and address, before the 30th of September 2006 with a written explanation of what inspired your work and its principal message.

The most inteesting entries will be used for a public exhibition in September (keep an eye on our website for precise dates and a jury of professionals will select the winners who will be informed of the results in writing (Competition address: INE 4432, route des Sausses 06910 Le Mas France). This competition is part of a strategy to disseminate information about Europe, by encouraging notably to school children in the regions involved in the project to take an active part in this reflection on what European citizenship means. A number of communication tools will also be made and distributed to teachers, inspectors, youth workers local representatives and the press.

The school for active European citizens

We brought together 12 young people of different nationalities to live together for 12 days as European citizens. This experimental school was composed of young people from Bulgaria, Spain and France and also included a European team of teachers and trainers. Classes were held in the morning and sports and cultural activities in the afternoon to discover the area around the school, in particular the Alpes-Maritimes, with visits to Grasse, Nice, Cannes and Monaco included in the program. The objective of the school is to promote closer multicultural connections, to encourage learning other languages in a non-academic setting, to reinforce amongst young people a feeling of belonging to a community, through learning the historical background and about the construction of Europe. The idea of studying in turn European civilisation and the local language, then going on cultural visits, and including sporting activities, has been chosen to give a pleasant exchange as well as an educational dimension (30 hours of classes were held at the recent summer school in Le Mas).The young participants worked as European reporters during their stay. Armed with a digital camera they photographed their activities and wrote a daily diary, which are available on the web site.

The first session of the school took place in le Mas in the Alpes-Maritimes, a little village with 130 in habitants, at a hight of 900 meters in a rural montainous area in the heart of the commune of Saint-Auban. An ideal setting for this summer university about citizenship. The commune of Le Mas in the Haut-Pays Niçois, a balcony on the Côte d’Azur !

Suggested activities

The school classes were based around 10 modules aimed at helping the teenagers to understand they have European values in commune (the chart of fondamental rights). Define the concept of interactive democracy and representation, showing the importance of active participation by the population about decisions which concern them. All the modules suggest a didactic approach based on exchanging useful ideas and are illustrated through games.

European meeting at Valladolid

All the parterns will go to Valladolid (Spain) for an important meeting to which the elected representatives of the région of Castilla Leon will be invited along with all those taking part in teaching on training on european questions. They evaluate the first session of the school and give concrete suggestions to develop the concept. This important administrative meeting aimed at showing that is necessary to consider the teaching of European citizenship through different disciplines.
Production of information material
Production of CD, a tool for communication and training for teachers and trainers who are working on the European citizenship. Production of CD for students containing the articles written and the photo album for their stay.

Euro Info Centre

The Centre has been open since 1997 for the public of the region of Veliko Tarnovo (the former capital of Bulgarie). More than 7000 visitors have visited it each year with 1900 of them consulting the document made available to them by the European Council (12 000) and the European Union (4500). The first objective of the Centre is to study young people problems (notably of the minorities) in an ever-changing society and to give solutions thought training and pilots projects. More than 15 partners from the public and the private sector have supported the teaching initiative and the centre of excellence which became an ONG at the end of 2000. More than 70 projects have been developed by the teams with the objective of fighting against domestic violence, psychological dependance, promoting male female egalityand children’s rights. The local Council have offered a building of 5600 m2. For 10 years to facilitate all the activities in the Centre for which runs thanks to volonters and experts. The centre has become the unique place for European information. It hopes to popularise European values in north of Bulgaria to help to developed the non governmental sector to help the Bulgarian society to make the transition through training conferences and seminars to work with the local authorities encouraging partnerships at local and European level.
Some services
A telephone hot line : telephone lines to help people with problems. A team of social workers, psychologists, layers and even doctors answer questions about unemployment, health, violence… and must importantly a telephone line to help and give urgent assistant to women and children who are victims of violence.
The Euro Info Centre offers a rich variety of documents, especially answering questions about Europe. The centre also publishes documents : newspapers about the centre’s activities, information about all the documents available and about the themes concerned.
Several areas of the building are used to organise activities aimed at and run by young people. You can also discover the “European garden” and once again areas for young people in particular the university club “initiative Europe” (18 000 people are currently studying at the local university) and “Jeunes Européens” (16/19 years old).
The centre organizes lots of training sessions about business start up, questions about public health and organizes gymnastic and dance classes.
Finaly, the centre houses lots of cultural events in an area specially designed to maximise conviviality. It includes exhibition rooms, reception rooms, multimedia rooms and relaxation areas.