Celebrate Europe

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Date/time
Date(s) - 20/02/2022 - 28/02/2022
00:00

Locality
Larnaca, Cyprus

Project type

Selected participants


 

Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Malta and Cyprus joined the EU 17 years ago, in what was described as the boldest moment of European post World War II history. This wave of enlargement, known as “the big bang”, was followed by the lower key accession of Bulgaria and Romania in 2007 and of Croatia in 2013.

With this youth exchange we aimed to gather together 60 youngsters from 10 different cultures, backgrounds as we believe that young people are the ground of the community we live in. We were estimating that this project will help to change attitudes and behaviors of young people towards diversity and discrimination and encourage adults to recognize the value that young people’s contributions bring to society at local, national and international levels. Through the exchange, the participants understood that their differences are enrichment for all of them, and that all are part of the common idea of European Identity.

The main objectives were in full accordance with Erasmus+ programme, as it follows below:

  • To give an opportunity to young people to learn about the different EU institutions, EU rights, Youth Goals and EU processes;
  • To exchange opinions with European politicians and policy makers;
  • Foster solidarity and tolerance, respect and mutual understanding, dialogue and cooperation between young people coming from different religious, cultural and social backgrounds;
  • Prevent the negative impact of discriminatory action, fighting against exclusion and marginalization of young people with fewer opportunities;
  • Encourage young people to participate in the solutions for social hindrance, thus stimulating their prospective role as active citizens;
  • Calibrate the understanding of the European values and the freedom of movement;
  • Highlighting the connection between European citizenship, human rights, democracy and intercultural learning, together with the underlying values.

During the project we celebrated the 17th anniversary of the EU accession of ALL 10 participating countries of the project as well the 72th Anniversary of the Council of Europe. Through interactive activities we celebrated our diverse cultural heritage across Europe – at EU, national, regional and local level. The aim of this initiative was to encourage more people to discover and engage with Europe’s cultural heritage, and to reinforce a sense of belonging to a common European space. Also participants discussed and share benefits, improvements and increase of quality of life that they have under EU.

Participants were from Czech Republic Czechia, Poland Poland, Hungary Hungary, Lithuania Lithuania, Slovenia Slovenia, Latvia Latvia, Estonia Estonia, Malta Malta, Cyprus Cyprus and Slovakia Slovakia.