Brussels, 15/03/2013 (Agence Europe) - The best school twinning projects of the year will be honoured at the 2013 eTwinning Awards in Lisbon on 14 March. The top prize will go to to the “Rainbow Village” project which brought together 12-15-year-olds in France, Greece, Romania, the United Kingdom, Italy, Slovakia and Poland. The pupils created a virtual post-Armageddon world and studied themes such as survival, conservation and citizenship. Belonging to the Comenius programme, the eTwinning network is a virtual classroom in which pupils and teachers from 100,000 schools in 33 European countries take part in interactive projects via the internet. In total, nine prizes will be announced at the award ceremony. “In this European Year of Citizens, it is fitting that a project with citizenship at its heart came out as the overall winner. We are very proud of the success of the eTwinning scheme. As well as giving young people a sense of local and European pride, it enables them to broaden their horizons and learn to become active citizens of Europe”, stated European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth Androulla Vassiliou. The winners, selected from 300 submissions, are divided into three age categories (4-11, 12-15 and 16-19). The prizes are also awarded in six special categories - prizes for language learning (Spanish, French, German and English), the Marie Sklodowska Curie prize for mathematics and science, and the Mevlana prize for intercultural understanding. (IL/transl.fl)