The exchange of the European youth has been growing stronger and stronger in the past decades. With bringing together a wide variety of cultural roots and values, Europe's youth became one of the most communicative groups of people in the world. Following the saying "Youth is always interacting", teenagers all over Europe take part in international competitions, exchange programmes as well as cultural and political events and discussions. This may mainly be ascribed to the strong wish of the European youth to get in contact with different cultures - and this not in the way as many so-called grown-ups do, namely in just watching a foreign culture like an animal in a zoo cage, but by talking and enjoying free-time activities with people who belong to a different culture. The reason for this need, which many teenagers express, is rather simple: The possibility of visiting other countries in Europe can be grasped very easily. In just two days of a car ride you can reach any European country - no matter if you live in Spain or Poland. The European nations already being very close together and yet accommodating 400 million people now even become closer: by fast exchange via the internet, European railway systems and low cost flights, they not only politically become a nation standing as one. And once a contact to a person from another country is established, both sides seem to take care of their acquaintance; thus 1.2 billion letters were sent to other European countries in 2003 - and this only from Germany.

European youth exchange grows strong, thus giving us two topics we felt are worth writing about.

by Sophie Küster and Sebastian Groth

How modern information technology can improve international understanding

For a long time people have known that regular contact and exchanges with people from other countries are necessary to establish, intensify and keep up friendships between people from different nations. Of course meeting people face-to-face is the best way to achieve this. The second best way is regular letter writing. This is why pen pal programmes for young people have long been very popular. But writing letters has some disadvantages that stand in the way of natural, authentic communication. On the one hand it takes a relatively long time to get a letter written and even longer to get an answer. Often the partners have lost interest by the time the answer arrives. On the other hand writing letters is not a real dialogue. And on top of that it is quite expensive.

Telephone conversations are quicker and more natural but they are even more expensive. The arrival of the internet has solved all these problems. Using emails is a swift, easy and cheap way to communicate with a partner, even if you live hundreds of miles apart. If you use chat rooms together with your email-pal, it's almost as if you were talking face-to-face with him or her.

It is not surprising that the European countries promote and sponsor internet projects that bring individuals, whole classes or even schools from different countries together. The Socrates Programme supports such projects, for example.

For me personally, the internet has been very useful for keeping in contact with some of my friends in other countries whom I met during my holidays or on exchange visits. I would probably be too lazy to write long letters, but I exchange emails regularly with Keiran from Ashford in England, Dagmara from Krakow in Poland and Louise from Sydney in Australia. So you see the internet does not only bring European countries together but also even continents.

Sophie Küster

The European Youth Parliament

Founded in 1987, the European Youth Parliament (EYP) encourages young people all across Europe to deepen their contacts and to make up political and cultural discussions. The EYP does this by using both ways of the already-mentioned "popular" communication: internet discussion platforms and so-called "sessions", which can be seen as parliament meetings. These meetings are held 3 times a year in different cities all over Europe and bring together up to 300 members for nine days. The EYP sees the term "Europe" in its widest way, which means that all countries geographically belonging to Europe can participate. The EYP has national committees which represent the interests of the EYP and advertise for new delegates, which are selected to represent the particular national committee in international sessions. But besides of organizing these sessions, the EYP has been working hard to establish European studies programmes, exchange programmes, databanks and research libraries in more than 600 schools all over Europe. Caused by its excellent structure and intoxicating discussions and events, the EYP is praised by surveys and the press: Surveys show very clearly that students who had participated in EYP events were extremely impressed and that nine out of ten students and schools would be glad to join a future event. As a matter of fact the EYP is doing great in achieving the goals it has set in the days it was founded.

My personal opinion about the idea of the EYP and the EYP itself could not be any more positive: The EYP is an institution which is anxious to bring the European youth closer together. And although its name includes the word "parliament", nobody should be scared that it is an all-political, all-serious thing. It's made by European teenagers and some of their teachers - therefore it has a very juvenile and bracing character. But the fact that the EYP makes teenagers from all over Europe understand each other better is not the only very positive aspect: By offering a platform for discussions via the internet, it raises the political interest of many young persons. I have long taken part in the EYP forums and I still am astonished about how many teenagers care about both European and "extra-European" issues, such as the war in Iraq and the relationship between Europe and the United States of America or economical problems in each and every European country. Eventually, the EYP discussion platforms offer a wide variety of possibilities of getting and staying in contact with the European youth - thus I made pen pals in Belarus and Lithuania.

Sebastian Groth