Youth encounter “Together@home” from 30th September until 4th October 2015 in Nettetal

The city of Nettetal hosted a youth encounter with the title “Together@home” with four twin cities from 30th September until 04th October 2015. Pupils from France, Poland and the Netherlands learned and lived what it means to be European. Around the 3rd October the topic was not only about German, but especially about European unity, and, of course, everything was conducted in English language. The CIVIC-Institute for international education was responsible for the content.

After a short reception in the city council of Nettetal on 30th September, the program started on 1st October: the pupils played the scenario game “Fokus Balkan” and got to know the various conflicts and open questions around the enlargement in direction to the east while adopting the game. After intensive debates and a summit between the European Commission, the President of the Council and the President of the Parliament, the EU started negotiations with the Republic of Macedonian in the framework of the scenario game.

It was on the same day that Jens Geier, a MEP from Essen, visited the teenagers and turned the participants out of their simulation back to reality. The dialogue with the pupils about questions concerning the refugees, saving of banks and the everyday life of a member of the European Parliament, took place at the end of an eventful day.

In order to approach Europe even closer, the whole group drove to the inofficial capital city of the European Union: Brussels. There, the teenagers visited the European Parliament together with the CIVIC-Institute for international education. After they hold sessions in the fictive plenary hall of the European Parliament in the city council of Nettetal, now they had the possibility to look at the original. Afterwards, the pupils informed themselves in the Parlamentarium about the history of the European Union and the functioning of the Parliament.

After a short guided tour and a few free hours in the city centre, the bus drove back to Nettetal during the evening.

On the third day, the emphasis was put on creating something for Europe on their own, with the aim not only to look at that what other generations had managed and built. The CIVIC-Institute for international education prepared five different workshops in which the topics of Europe und reunification were processed in various ways. In that way, the pupils had the opportunity to develop collages in order to express their perspective on unity and peace. Other pupils prepared and conducted a survey in Nettetal  in order to ask the population of the city about their opinion on the European Union.

Another group dedicated themselves with the future: How could the EU look like in 25 years? One workshop dealt with the past: two contemporary witnesses had been interviewed- the interview was recorded and reprocessed by the CIVIC-Institute for international education. Other pupils developed a short theatre play that reflected current problems in the EU during the day.

At the evening, the results were presented to the public. The pupils introduced their very personal perspective on the European unification to invited guests. At the end, the present guests were not only excited because of the results, but also due to the exchange between the teenagers during the past days.