EU office: Newsletter - February 2020

The 30-year anniversary of equality work in Chemnitz is a chance to reflect on previous successes and take a look forward into the future. With Chemnitz signing the European Charter for Equality of Women and Men in Local Life in October 2012, the city has been able to see how it measures up to the rest of Europe and share experience and insights with specialists from other European nations. The Gender-Equal Cities symposium coming up on 7 March 2020 will be an opportunity to discuss the issue further.

The international cooperation between various research institutions as well as six cities from Latin America and the EU seeks to find ways to maintain and restore ecosystem functions for a sustainable and resilient cityscape that offers an excellent quality of life. It focuses on issues such as renaturing brownfield sites or degraded areas using nature-based solutions (NBS).

INTERLACE employs a participatory approach to link up local players from a variety of sectors. Sensitive city areas often encompass ecological and social trouble spots that can be solved by working together. The participating cities are developing tools, guidelines and strategies to support sustainable urban development in collaboration with researchers. Building on this, the project is working to develop successful implementation concepts for measures that are tailored to the needs of the cities. The overall coordinator is the Ecologic Institut in Berlin.

The Climate Alliance, which Chemnitz has been a member of since 1993, coordinates the exchange of experience and expertise between the participating cities. Portoviejo (Ecuador), the Krakow Metropolis Association (Poland), San José (Costa Rica), Envigado (Colombia) and Cornellà (Spain) are also members of the partner network alongside Chemnitz.

The European Solidarity Corps, formerly known as the European Voluntary Service, is a great opportunity for young people to get involved in building a social and diverse Europe. Building on its long experience in the European Voluntary Service, solaris FZU has been active in the European Solidarity Corps programme since 2015. It acts as a coordinating organisation and also sends and hosts volunteers. The organisation offers young people the chance to be sent on a partner project, prepares the volunteers for their assignments and takes care of the formalities. It also provides support during the ESC programme.

In turn, solaris FZU also invites volunteers from other European countries to complete their service at the organisation’s own facilities and provides assistance to cooperation projects over the course of the ESC programmes. The fields volunteers can work in are very varied: social, cultural or ecological projects enhance the young volunteers’ professional prospects, build their language skills and raise their intercultural awareness. It’s also a great way to learn and gain experience in a different country ‒ interesting, exciting and international! The person to contact at solaris FZU is Graziela Hennig.

To mark the last German Presidency of the Council of the European Union in 2007, EU Project Day was launched by Chancellor Angela Merkel to bring young people in Europe closer together. Ever since then, EU officials and politicians have paid annual visits to German schools to talk to young people. The next Project Day will take place around 27 April 2020. All schools, including primary schools, are invited to register online. Teachers can design the course of the day with their pupils and be as creative as they like: for example doing planning games or a European quiz, or watching films. There are plenty of ideas and materials available on the Project Day website.