New European Class – Not satisfying the demand

In 2007, GONG started implementing the project European Class – a series of workshops for high school students in Croatia. In workshops students are introduced to relevant issues of Croatian membership in the European Union in an interesting and interactive way, stressing topics concerning youth, their mobility, education and future employment. The main goal of the project is to raise awareness on European integration and to decrease the level of misunderstanding and prejudice towards the EU and Croatian membership of the EU. The project was officially recommended by the Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration (MFAEI).

GONG decided to start with the implementation of this project, following the expressed wishes of both high school students and their teachers, who all thought that the school curriculum lacks the information about the EU. In 2007, 600 workshops were conducted, although there was even a greater demand for them. In 2008 GONG planned to conduct 800 workshops for students around Croatia, but unfortunately not enough financial funds were provided by the donors asked to support the project. Therefore, GONG was able to conduct only 309 workshops in 79 high schools. Workshops were conducted by 11 teams of two trainers (final year students and/or just graduated students of social sciences and humanities), educated by GONG and the MFAEI. At the workshop each student was given an educational brochure with information about the EU and links to relevant websites.
In 2008, the project was eventually supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, Ministry of Science, Education and Sports, the Delegation of the European Commission to the Republic of Croatia and the Norwegian Embassy in Croatia.

GONG regrets having been unable to conduct the planned number of workshops around Croatia, especially since there was a big interest and demand from the high schools. Apart from this, those who participated in the project expressed their satisfaction with the information received during the workshop and found it very useful. Keeping in mind that Croatia comes closer and closer to actual accession to the EU and there is still not enough information about the EU for the citizens, it seems right to conclude that the implementation of this project is very much needed in Croatia. Therefore, we can only hope that next year we will be able to provide enough financial funds and finally conduct workshops for all those young people that are interested.

Sandra Pernar, GONG, Croatia