9th May: Europe Day

On the 9th of May one hundred members of staff who work with aid and development within the European Commission will visit schools and meet students. This initiative, called ?Europe Day in schools?, is organised with the help of a number of European regions and aims to raise the awareness amongst young people of EU actions worldwide. From Jelgava (Latvia) to Palermo (Italy) the Commission?s staff will talk directly to students of ages ranging from 13 to 18 and will answer their questions in an attempt to strike up a debate over the basic values and principles upon which European solidarity abroad is based. All this is to take place during Europe?s fiftieth anniversary celebrations.

As a symbol of the Treaty of Rome?s fiftieth anniversary, the ?Europe Day in schools? initiative will take place in 50 regions, together these represent 18 EU member states, and will reach about 97000 students in 4420 classes. Over 90 ?ambassadors? ? EU Commission development staff ? will travel from Brussels to meet the students.

The Commission provided schools in advance with informative material regarding EU development policy to help students and teachers organise the meetings and prepare the debates. To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary since the Treaty of Rome a special edition called ?50 years ? 50 years of solidarity? will also be distributed. This publication illustrates 50 projects that have actually been carried out worldwide thanks to the European Union.

The initiative

The 9th of May is the Schuman Declaration?s anniversary (1950), that marked the first step in Europe?s integration process. The ?9th of May – Europe Day in schools? initiative was created thanks to the hard work, in 2004, of EuropeAid staff members and the General Directorate of the European Commission, both involved in aid and development. A first pilot project was successfully carried out that year in Campania (Italy) with the participation of 30 schools and 10 thousand students.

Given the success of the initiative, in 2005 a proposal to the local government in Brussels was made for the project to be extended to a larger number of regions and schools. Thanks to the resolve of European schools and regions this initiative has grown year after year bringing the number of member States involved from 1 in 2004 to 4 in 2005 and 15 in 2006.

This initiative offers young people an important space within which they can establish a dialogue regarding the values upon which European development and aid is based with people who actually work for the European Commission. This is important as young people play a fundamental role in Europe?s future.

For more information about the ?9th of May – Europe Day in schools? initiative and for a list of participating regions see:

http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/9-may-initiative/index_en.htm