Romanian youngsters to be familiarised with EU realities through the “Europe Agenda” project

published in issue 3671 page 11 at 2006-05-04 Nine o'clock

The Ministry for European Integration (MIE), the Delegation of the European Commission in Bucharest and the ‘Generation Europe’ Foundation released yesterday the Romanian edition of the ‘Europe Agenda’ project. The aim of the project is to offer a tool for the information and education of high-school students about the European Union, about the rights and duties of the European citizens as well as about the European values or the EU membership. About the event, Minister of Integration Anca Boagiu stated that Romanians and especially the young people needed information about what it means to be a citizen of the EU, about people’s rights and obligations. ‘The key to a successful integration is communication, after that comes the knowledge, and not least information’, said the minister. Jonathan Scheele, the head of the EC Delegation in Bucharest, in turn noted that the project was being implemented in all the other 25 member states of the EU as well as in Turkey whose status is only of a candidate country. He reminded that one of the EU’s priorities was to build bridges among its citizens, based on a mutual knowledge of the values and culture of each country. Scheele said he was confident that the project would be well received by Romanian young people and by their teachers both before and after accession, but noted that it should only be regarded as a hope because the project did not mean that Romania may think of itself as already integrated in the EU. ‘In two weeks’ we’ll see the recommendations of the European Commission about Romania’, stated Jonathan Scheele. The ‘Europe Agenda’ project includes the EU/RO 2006-2007 Teacher’s Guidebook and a support CD-ROM. It will be implemented in 600 Romanian high schools as formal and informal education. 125,000 copies of the agenda have been printed and will be distributed free of charge.