Almost one year ago in Ghent (Belgium), the Straits Executive Committee decided to organise an event in Bruges that would bring young people together from all areas of the Straits Committee. The theme selected was the environment and host province, West Flanders, appointed House of Europe Ryckevelde to deliver the event. 12 secondary schools from six Straits’ regions agreed to take part in this year-long initiative and, on 21-23^rd March, over 109 students and 12 teachers met in Bruges and online at the first ever Straits youth event.

The event in Bruges, the high point of the students’ work together, was the Straits Committee’s first major hybrid event. This format was chosen to allow students from Kent to work with their peers remotely throughout. Over the three days together, the young people were set a challenge: work in mixed nationality teams to come up with an idea for an environmental project that could be implemented at all their schools. Each project had to address one of the following areas: mobility; sustainable food; or the circular economy. 

To help get to know each other in the months leading up to the event, the students enjoyed a pre-event programme of online meetings and activities overseen by the event organizer Ryckevelde. These included preparing video presentations for each other about their schools.

With their projects proposals designed, the students then took part in a closing reception where they brilliantly presented their ideas to the judging panel composed of Straits Committee members. This was a convivial moment that allowed the students, teachers and members of the Straits Committee to discuss the projects presented and, more generally, served to underline the commitment of young people to taking action on climate change.

Although six excellent projects were put forward, only one winner could be chosen, and the most votes went to a project on using more local sustainable food and creating dedicated growing areas in schools. This project will now be implemented with Straits Committee support in the second half of 2022 and students from all regions represented at the Straits Youth Event will take part. Watch this space for more information about the project’s progress in the weeks and months ahead.

To find out more about the Straits Youth event in Bruges, check out the video below.  

https://www.focus-wtv.be/video/internationale-samenwerking-jongeren

The Straits Committee’s second call for projects closed in February 2022, and, on 22^nd March, the members of the Executive Committee agreed to support the following projects:

The Straits Committee is pleased to announce that the Province of Zuid-Holland from the Netherlands has joined the Straits Committee to become its 7th full member. The decision was confirmed by the Straits Committee at their December 2021 meeting. Jeannette Baljeu, the regional minister for European and International Affairs, said: “We are looking forward to working with the coastal regions around the Straits of Dover, a collaboration of regions that have shown in the past that they have many points of contact.” 

On July 7, 2021, the fourth Executive Committee of the Straits Committee took place in Ghent. This meeting allowed the members of the Committee to re-launch cross-border exchanges between the six local authorities of the Strait, physically reunited for the first time since the Executive Committee of July 1, 2020 in Middleburg.

The local authorities of the Straits Committee seek to promote cross-border cooperation on both sides of the strait by providing technical and financial support for local cross-border initiatives in various fields. To do so, the small projects initiative has a budget of €30,000 per local authority. The local authorities participating in the call for proposals for 2021 are the Kent County Council, the Department of Pas-de-Calais, the Department of the Nord, the Province of West Flanders, the Province of East Flanders, and the Province of Zeeland.

Convinced that good cross-border relations are of real added value to the territories bordering the Strait area, and given the geographical proximity and intensity of connections between the territories, the members of the Straits Committee have wished to develop a shared vision and strategy to guide their joint actions and shape the Strait region’s future development.