The European Parliament opens its doors to 300 young Europeans

The European Parliament opens its doors to 300 young Europeans

The City of Strasbourg and the Hemicycle will greet a delegation of young people from 18 different Countries, who will deliver a document with a high symbolic value to the Vice-president of the European Parliament

Terra del Fuoco, young NGO from Turin, Italy, steadily present in the social and cultural field in the Region Piedmont, active in international cooperation, announced the presence of over 300 students coming from 18 European and extra-EU Countries at the site of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, on May 25^th.

The visit to the EP represents the final stage of the project “The Phoenix – Europe”, created and realized by Terra del Fuoco and funded by the European Commission and by numerous Italian local administrations. During eight months, the participants discussed and elaborated themes of great importance for the present and future of Europe, such as eco-sustainable development, dynamics of integration and the consequences drawn by armed conflicts. “The Phoenix – Europe” involved 380 students, who met in three occasions. The first meeting was held in Krakow (Pl) between January 31^st and February 4^th, 2007, and among other activities the participants had the chance to visit the former extermination camp of Auschwitz. In the second meeting, held in Turin from March 22^nd to 26^th, the themes discussed were elaborated through workshops and transformed into on-line questionnaires, subsequently voted in real time by all participants. Finally in Rome, on March 25^th, they were symbolically welcomed by the President of the Italian Republic, Mr Giorgio Napolitano, at the Fosse Ardeatine Park, and took part in the celebration of the 50^th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome.

“In order to build our common European future, we shared a year-long course with 380 young people from all over Europe, starting from our history, or better, from our histories, different, at times tragically counter posed, but all associated by those gates in Auschwitz”, states Michele Curto – President of Terra del Fuoco. “In the European Parliament in Strasbourg we will have the opportunity to approve the final document discussed and developed in a great experiment of democracy and European citizenship. This makes 'The Phoenix, Europe' an unbelievable educational project upon the value of memory, upon the fortune of stories shared between European populations, upon European identity and citizenship, but above all, in this moment of impasse concerning the approval of the Constitution, a relevant action for the promotion of the political process toward European integration”.

The program of the day will begin with an assembly held into the Hemicycle of the European Parliament, during which the final version of the document will be voted. The Vice-president of the EP, Mr Gérard Onesta will attend, and at the end the document itself will be delivered to him. In the late morning, the delegation will be hosted by the Municipality of Strasbourg.

The official program is as follows:

09.00 – 11.00		Assembly in the Hemicycle, meeting with Mr Onesta and the MEPs
11.00 – 13.00		Manifestation in the city of Strasbourg
13.00 – 15.00		Welcome at the City Hall, meeting with the municipal delegation

The event will be attended by:

Gérard Onesta		Vice-president of the European Parliament
Sandro Gozi		Italian deputy, fellow member of the Commission for Institutional Affairs and of the Commission for EU Policies of the Italian Parliament, President of the Schengen, Europol and Immigration Parliamentary Committee
Giulietto Chiesa		Member of the European Parliament
Vittorio Agnoletto		Member of the European Parliament
Monica Frassoni		Member of the European Parliament, Co-president of the Group of the Greens/ALE at the European Parliament

About Terra del Fuoco

Terra del Fuoco is an association for social promotion, founded in 2001 by a group of young people coming from the students' movement in Turin. It is an NGO operating in the field of international cooperation. Activities follows four strands of intervention: international cooperation and cooperation to development – education to active citizenship in European ambition – cultural promotion and social support to migrant communities – social and cultural promotion in the Mediterranean area. For further info, please visit www.terradelfuoco.org

About “The Phoenix - Europe”

“The Phoenix – Europe” is the main project in the field of education to active European citizenship. 400 young people actively participate in the project, coming from Portugal, Spain, Austria, France, Italy, Malta,

Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia, Ukraine, Macedonia, Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Belarus, Russia and Moldova. Terra del Fuoco considers young Europeans the only engine for a real growth of European society and of the sense of European citizenship. For further info, please visit www.europeanphoenix.org

Contacts

Oliviero Alotto - Tel. +39.011.238.6330 – Cell. +39.333.654.6597 – oliviero.alotto@terradelfuoco.org