On the 9th May 1950, Robert Schuman presented his proposal for the creation of an organised Europe. This proposal, known as the “Schuman Declaration”, is considered to be the beginning of the creation of what is now the European Union (EU).
On the occasion of the Europe Day, which is celebrated each 9th May, the Delegation of the European Commission (EC) in Sierra Leone kicked-off the anniversary with a first of its kind visit by students and teachers of the American International School of Freetown (AISF) to its Delegation at Hill station on 7th May 2008.
During this well-perceived multi-cultural event, the Head of Delegation (HoD), Mr. Hans Allden gave an overview of the history of the creation of the EU and its gains for the people of Europe and other parts of the World. In a question and answer session, the students could raise some further issues, which underlined the importance of such kind of event to bring Europe closer to the people benefiting from the EC support in Sierra Leone.
The pupils then competed in various contests, which included the puzzling of the Europe Map and a game where they had to identify and assign the correct flags to the twenty-seven member states of the EU. Prizes were later distributed to the winners of each game.
The event was coordinated by Mrs. Wiebke Braun from the Administration Section and Mr. Matthias Reusing, Head of the Rural Development Section of the EC Delegation, who also gave a Power Point presentation on the EC’s cooperation with Sierra Leone. The EC supports the country in the fields of infrastructure and good governance to agriculture, fishery, environment, trade as well as in budget support.