As in the past years the Spring Day for Europe campaign invites schools to book one or many days in their calendar to organise events focusing on debate, interaction and reflection on European themes. Spring Day for Europe is an opportunity for young European citizens to express their views and make their voices heard in Europe.

In 2008 Spring Day for Europe runs from 25 March to 30 June, with a particular focus on 9 May, when Europe Day is celebrated. The campaign runs under the motto “Bridging cultures through dialogue” and joins the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue initiative. The campaign aims to increase awareness of cultural diversity with young people, as a major asset in our common European cultural heritage.

Spring Day for Europe is open to all pre-primary, primary, lower, upper secondary, vocational and special needs schools in Europe as well as the rest of the world. It is also open to classes from organisations in charge of extra-curricular activities whose goals are to develop and strengthen skills related to school curriculum.

The European Commission and European Schoolnet invite schools to register or validate past registrations on the web portal, which is available in 23 languages. The registered schools will be given help in preparing their own activities and events that are expected to take place at local, national and European level.

The Spring Day for Europe team, both at central and national level, will encourage and facilitate visits by local, national and European public figures to schools. Such visits are an opportunity to discuss the latest European Union developments and themes and to make the voices of young Europeans heard by decision makers.

The campaign is supported by the ministries of education from all the 27 member states. It is managed by a team consisting of a group of experts at European Schoolnet, a group which ensures national liaison, nominated by the ministries of education, and a group of teacher advisers.

The kick-off meeting of the campaign took place in Brussels on 7-8 March 2008. The purpose of the meeting was to define the strategy of integrating the expected outcomes of the campaign, such as activities and events, into national curricula. In addition, the project team discussed solutions on how to improve and enhance the online content, services and tools that are offered on the web portal.

Further information

Spring Day for Europe web portal 

2008: European Year of Intercultural Dialogue
 

Contact: Petru Dumitru springday@springday2008.net