11th-12th May 2011: Comenius Regio Conference, Bordeaux
On 11th and 12th May 2011 the project YES (Youth Educational Systems) was presented at the European Conference "Creating networks of European regions" held in Bordeaux (France) and organized by the European Commission and by the Agence-Europe Education-Formation France. The event was purposely prepared for the dissemination of the results obtained under the two-year bilateral partnerships in consequence of the selection of high quality projects submitted under the evaluation of the EU bodies in 2009, which was the year of the launch of the Comenius Regio Action included in the EU Lifelong Learning Programme (LLP).
A further purpose of the conference was related on making possible long-term sustainability cooperation of such partnerships entered into force two years ago. The large panel of the authorities attending the Conference raised the importance of the 2 days in the capital of the French region of Aquitaine.As speakers in charge of delivering a speech were Alain Juppè - the French Minister for Foreign Affairs -, Phillippe Richert - the French Minister for Regional and Local authorities -, Jan Truszczynski - Director General of the Directorate General Education and Culture (EAC) of the European Commission, Alain Rousset - the President of the Aquitaine Region - and a broad audience of academics and leaders of several European and national institutions in addition to 263 Comenius Regio project coordinators.
Adam Pokorny - Executive Head of the Unit responsible for the Comenius program and for school educational policy of the DG Education and Culture of the European Commission - acting as chairman opened his speech by stressing the symbolic value of this “revolutionary” action whose first aim was to correlate the political and educational regional authorities with schools and NGO’s involved in the area of youth education. Alain Juppe noted the successful approach that since the premises could be figured out in the Comenius Regio action, so as to induce him to commit the offices of the City of Bordeaux, where he currently holds the role of Mayor, in developing a project proposal which has subsequently been approved. After the speeches of Rousset, Richert and other leaders the floor went to many representatives of the project coordinator organizations. All speakers emphasized the need for a greater correlation with the political level, urging the European Commission to take into account any explicit reference to be included, as added value, in the "Guide for Applicants 2012" of a direct participation of politicians as staff members. Other surveys focused on the relevant problem of co-financing whose total amount in certain circumstances involve significant difficulties can be overcome only if there is a strong political will to invest resources and expertise. In a time of economic recession and rising unemployment, to obtain additional funding from the approval of a project proposal under the EU programmes is deemed as necessary for certain bodies and institutions in order to pursue European cooperation with partners and other relevant stakeholders.
The delegate of the Assemblea Legislativa - invited as project coordinator organization – attended the thematic workshop "Inclusive, supportive and motivating environments for all and learning how to prevent early school leaving", duly designed by the EU Commission for sharing and reflecting on the projects final achievements. Due to the high number of participants in the thematic workshop, led by experts of the European Commission, the explanation of the results was very short. The illustration of the Project YES raised particular attention, in connection to: the website designed in three languages, the web platform created for a remote cooperation amongst the experts of the Emilia-Romagna and Iasi regional consortia (aiming at exchanging joint documents and researches), as well as the amount of work included in the Draft Report, a publication that contains all the scientific and methodological approaches tackled during the two years of collaboration between the two consortia. Thus, YES attracted praise, compliments and requests for future collaboration in education.
Moreover, a proposal made by different participants about the acknowledgement of some extra credits for those which successfully implemented European projects under the Comenius action, to be considered in the future selection procedure, had the unanimous consensus of the audience in the final plenary session.
Finally, the “Youth Educational Systems” Project was included in the Comenius Regio 2009 Compendium of the European Commission, containing the best Comenius Regio 2009 projects which will be distributed Europe-wide.
The programme of the Conference
