Brussels, 12/05/2010 (Agence Europe) - “A train for Europe”, a German programme whereby 24 professional training centres designed a special mini train, has won the Charlemagne Youth Prize for 2010, a prize awarded in Aachen on Tuesday 11 May. The second and third prizes went to “You are here”, a literary programme from Ireland, and '”BEST BEC Engineering Competition” from Bulgaria. The three prizes are for programmes that encourage a feeling of European identity and integration, winning €5,000, €3,000 and €2,000 respectively.
At the prize-winning ceremony at RWTH University in Aachen, the first prize was awarded by the president of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, who said the prize-winning programme, “A train for Europe”, by CNC European Network was a perfect expression of the European ideal - working together, going beyond national borders and discovering potential and diversity. A Comenius school partnership, set up in November 2006 and coordinated by the Bad Kreuznach professional training centre, coordinated more than 1,500 trainees from 24 professional training centres as they built a locomotive and wagons Airbus-style. The train is 90 mm wide, 8 metres long and runs on a 12 metre circular track. (L.C./transl.fl)