Participation: The event involved 47citizens, including 3 participants fromthe city ofAltea (Spain), 2 participants from the city of Warsaw (Poland), 2 participants from the city of Noto(Italy), 2 participants from the city of Athienou (Cyprus), 2 participants from the city of Brussels (Belgium), 2 participants from the city of Ljubljana (Slovenia), 2 participants from the city of Sofia (Bulgaria) and 32 participants from the city Agia (Greece).
Location / Dates: The event took place in Agia (Greece), from 2/09/2019 to 5/09/2019
Short description: Me, around EU
On the first day of the meeting the project partners visited the Cultural Center “Chrysallida” in Agia, where they were welcomed by the Deputy Mayor Mr Petros Barberis, who is in charge for Youth and Equality Matters. MrBarberis expressed the great pleasure of the Mayor of AgiaMrAntonisGkountaras to host the project YOUROPE in the Municipality of Agia and also the will for contribution and active participation for the successful implementation of the project.
Mr Alberto Lorente Saiz, on behalf of the Municipality of Altea, which is the Lead partner, presented a review of the Project dissemination outputs, discussed with the participants in detail about ideas and suggestions on the implementation of the project and also referred to the way that the Project implementation should be monitored at local level in each partner country.
A very important and interesting discussion about the project declaration was the next part of the meeting. Mr Alberto Lorente Saiz presented the draft of the declaration first and all of the partners commented on it and made their proposals on the final text. All of the issues that are mentioned in it were discussed in detail as a result of the effort of the partners.
Afterwards the representatives of Finnova presented the final meeting in Brussels and their proposals about it. They explained their idea of organizing a meeting that will include the participation of every country’s European Parliament Members and also the participation of a larger number of representatives from each country.
A short while later the workshop “Hi, my name is Europe!” took place. And everybody had the opportunity to talk about the engagement of young people in activities involving the values and ideas of the E.U. in their place.
At noon the participants had lunch in Metaxohori where they had the opportunity to meet the members of the Social Cooperative Enterprise “Agieus” which is an entity that promotes a different approach of helping unemployed people reenter the labour market.
In the afternoon the project partners took part at a guided tour at the Castle of Velika, one of the most important archaeological sites in our region, whose history starts in Ancient Greece and keeps on to the period of the Byzantine Empire.
In the evening all of the participants visited the concert at the “Apple Feast” in Agia and had the opportunity to enjoy the feast together with the locals.
The second day of the meeting started with the gamification workshop “Reflecting about European Principles”. A game, where participants were divided into groups and answered to the questions that were found on links supported by the E.U. After that and after the instructions they received, they were asked to play a role game named “Me on a Gullivert map”. The aim of this game was to realise the things that bring us all together and that make the E.U. important to each one of us. There were three different groups that worked on each one of the maps and that presented their ideas about the E.U. This was the start of the Social Network Marathon as every team published photos of its map and its teamwork.
After a nice lunch by the beach, the participants visited the Church Museum where they had the opportunity to see icons and other exhibits from the 13th century and additionally they visited St Anthony’s church, who is the patron saint of Agia.
Then started the preparations for the Workshop at the Apple Feast – Reflecting the ideas and values of YOUROPE to the local community. All gathered at the main square in Agia where the Exhibition for the Apple Feast was and prepared the ingredients for making traditional sweets with apples together with the locals. For three hours the cooperation, the contribution, the support and the team work of people from so many different countries where a wonderful example of the real meaning of the living together in the E.U. More than 300 people supported this event with their presence. Local member associations and pastry chefs were involved and the result was happiness, joy and a very much bigger YOUROPE family.
At 21.00 a farewell dinner was given at a local restaurant. A wonderful project meeting had come to an end but a much more wonderful friendship among the participants of YOUROPE was there awaiting the next meeting!
