Youth For Europe Week

It was a relatively early start for everyone for the Youth for Europe session in the Town Hall on Monday 20 August. Edwina Cooper and I arrived at the Town Hall at 9am to welcome a group of some 40 young people between 16 and 26 years of age from our twin towns of Bagnols (France), Braunfels (Germany) and Feltre (Italy), together with a number from our associated Twin Towns of Carcaixient (Spain) and Kinkunfelyghaza (Hungary). They were spending a week in Newbury as part of the International Youth for Europe week.

I welcomed them for breakfast and then introduced the topic for discussion and presentations after that.

I began by giving them the dictionary meaning of migration and then suggested why people migrated, followed by some suggestions of the advantages and disadvantages involved. There were six tables around which the groups gathered in country teams and they were invited to discuss the subject for 30 minutes after which spokespersons from each group would give a 5 to 10 minute presentation.

I was impressed with their depth of thinking and the presentations were well done and I admired their grasp of the English language. I congratulated them on their presentations and on how well they spoke English. I wished them well for their stay and they returned to the Waterside Centre where they were being accommodated.

My thanks go to the Newbury Young People's Council in hosting the contingent, to Joyce Lewis and Carol Currie for their help in organising the breakfast and to Sue Page and Karen Hutt for all their support.