Europe Day in Estonia: Travel Europe in one day

"Europe Day celebrations were special this year, as the European Union is also celebrating its 50th anniversary" mentioned Mr Toivo Klaar, the Head of the European Commission Representation in Estonia. The objective of the public events was to introduce the EU to the citizens in an informative and entertaining manner. One of the main passing themes of the Europe day events was theatre. Professional and amateur theatre groups performed sketches from their plays in turns with different musical and dance performances.

The outdoor events took place on the main square or in the centre of the cities. The aim was to offer activities for the whole family during the whole day. Quizzes about European Union, drawing and poetry competitions were organised for children. At the same time their parents and other interested people could find information about European Union in the information tent, where various EU related organisations and EU member states' embassies distributed publications and information about their activities and answered to all kind of EU related questions. The most active participants were given small prizes with EU symbolic and the 50th Anniversary Together-logo. Europe Day events culminated with big concerts of different Estonian pop-bands in the evening, which attracted many young people to the event as well.

The more substantial content was given to the events by the speeches of the mayors, county governors and politicians, who explained the history of European Union and the roots of the tradition to celebrate Europe Day. As celebrating Europe Day is quite new tradition in Estonia, even though Europe Day was first celebrated already before Estonia joined the European Union, people are still not aware of that holiday. Therefore the European Commission Representation in Estonia is interested together with state institutions and member states' embassies in continuing this tradition we have had so far - to celebrate Europe Day with public events, as this is a good opportunity to bring the European Union closer to people and to draw attention to the cultural diversity in the European Union. Europe Day was celebrated in Estonia with large public events in 4 Estonian towns: Tartu, Pärnu, Paide and Kuressaare.

In addition to the four public events on Europe Day the European Commission Representation and the European Parliament Information Bureau together with many EU member states' embassies organised an Open Door Day and a large out-door event in Tallinn on the 2 June to celebrate the EU 50th anniversary. The slogan of the day was "Travel through Europe in one day". The event took place on Saturday, to enable more people to take part of it, and for the first time in Estonia many EU states' embassies opened their premises' for the public simultaneously. Open Doors Day was built up in an entertaining manner - special "passports" were handed out for the participants and in case of visiting all of the open embassies and collecting one stamp from each one, the "passport" participated in a draw with many prizes. Throughout the day, all embassies organised entertaining events and activities for the people visiting them. Although the event was organised for the first time, it turned out to be quite successful – some embassies having even around thousand visitors. Most probably the event will also be organised in 2008!

Liis Võhandu, European Commission Representation in Estonia