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Language Exchange Open Day at Waterford Europe Direct Centre

Calling all Linguists! Language Exchange Open Day 12 March at 6pm

Spanish, Irish, Polish, French, German, Italian, Greek, Portuguese and English... these are just some of the languages that have been registered so far in the Europe Direct Language Exchange which will hold an open day this Friday 12 March at 6pm in Central Library.

If you have a language to share and are interested in brushing up on your existing language skills then the Language Exchange is the ideal place to meet like minded linguists.

The Language exchange sessions will take place at the Waterford Europe Direct Information Centre on the second floor of Central Library in Lady Lane. The Centre is currently compiling a database of people who would like to take part. The exchanges will be free and will take place in the languages with the most demand.

If you would like to take part you can contact the centre on 051 849975 or email europedirect@waterfordcity.ie to register your details. There will be an open day for all participants this Friday 12 March at 6pm. All are welcome to attend.

The Waterford Europe Direct Information Centre, run from Central Library is a contact point for all queries on the EU for the South East Region. The Centre aims to promote informed debate and active European citizenship by providing EU information tailored to meet the needs of the local community.

‘Where I am from…’ and ‘Colour a Superhero’ Competitions at the Waterford Europe Direct Information Centre

The Waterford Europe Direct Information Centre is running two competitions for children aged 7 to 12. ‘Where I am from…’ a poetry competition celebrating the diversity of the class room community and ‘Colour a Superhero’ a competition to name and colour a climate change fighting superhero! Great prizes (bicycles, micro scooters and board games) to be won. Entry forms are available from any branch of Waterford City Council Library Service or email europedirect@waterfordcity.ie for more details. Entries can be dropped into Central, Ardkeen or Brown’s Road Library before 24 April. The Prize giving will take place on Saturday 8 May to celebrate Europe Day, which takes place the following day (9 May).

Download the ‘Colour a Superhero’ sheet

Download ‘Entry Form’

Make a Book' certificate presentation at Blanchardstown Library

The Mayor of Fingal, Councillor Ciaran Byrne presented certificates of achievement to 120 local primary school children who took part in the 2009 Make a Book project. The presentation took place on Tuesday 2nd March at 11am at Blanchardstown Library. The Make a Book project gave primary school children the opportunity to write and illustrate their own books.

The project drew on all their developing creative skills and gives them a strong sense of achievement and involvement. In 2009 teachers from local primary schools were invited to take part in Make a Book workshops in Blanchardstown Library. The workshops were facilitated by children’s author Terry Hassett Henry who has many years experience of working on creative writing projects with adults and children. The teachers encouraged the children to write books using the theme of customs and festivals from around the world. Students from different ethic backgrounds were asked to explore stories from their own culture and traditions and to tell that story in their own words. The project helps to promote the positive recognition of cultural and linguistic diversity in the Dublin 15 area. It is supported by Fingal County Council and the Europe Direct Centre at Blanchardstown Library.

To see Press Release, please click here

Blanchardstown Europe Direct Centre - Fingal ECO Week

Fingal ECO Week is an annual event which aims to raise environmental awareness among adults and children throughout the County. This year it will run from the 8th to 13th March. The official launch by the Mayor of Fingal will take place in Blanchardstown Library on Monday 8th. The Library will also host an Expo Day on the 8th, when the public will be invited to visit information stands and talk to representatives from Europe Direct, Fingal Conservation Volunteers, Living Gifts, VOICE (Voice of Irish Concern for the Environment), Smoothie Bike, Global Action Plan and the Fingal County Council Environmental Awareness Team. Staff at the Europe Direct stand will highlight the European response to climate change and a more sustainable way of living, by handing out relevant leaflets and by directing people to the Europe Direct telephone and internet information services. During ECO week there will be lots of other events taking place at Blanchardstown Library including a Green Homes presentation, compost and grow it yourself workshops and seminars on the climate change campaign and environmental food matters. Local primary and secondary school teachers and students have been invited to attend all the events.

Public Domain Manifesto

Sixteen non-profits led by COMMUNIA, the European Thematic Network on the Digital Public Domain, released the Public Domain Manifesto, which aims at “reminding citizens and policy-makers of a common wealth that, since it belongs to all, it is often defended by no-one. In a time where we for the first time in history have the tools to enable direct access to most of our shared culture and knowledge it is important that policy makers and citizens strengthen the legal concept that enables free and unrestricted access and reuse”.
Among other provisions, the manifesto points out that active maintenance of the Public Domain must take into account a number of general principles:
• The Public Domain is the rule, copyright protection is the exception
• Copyright protection should last only as long as necessary to achieve a reasonable compromise between protecting and rewarding the author for his intellectual labour and safeguarding the public interest in the dissemination of culture and knowledge
• What is in the Public Domain must remain in the Public Domain
• The lawful user of a digital copy of a Public Domain work should be free to (re-)use, copy and modify such work
• Contracts or technical protection measures that restrict access to and re-use of Public Domain works must not be enforced
In addition to these general principles, the Manifesto presents a set of recommendations aimed at protecting the Public Domain and ensuring that it can continue to function in a meaningful way.
Individuals and organisations are invited to read and, if supported, sign the Manifesto which can be found at http://www.publicdomainmanifesto.org/.

Language Exchange at the Waterford Europe Direct Information Centre

Do you have a language to share? or are you interested in brushing up on your language skills? If the answer is yes and if you would like to meet like minded linguists then the Central Library Language Exchange is looking for you!

The Language exchange sessions will take place at the Waterford Europe Direct information Centre on the second floor of Central Library in Lady Lane. The Centre is currently compiling a database of people who would like to take part. The exchanges will be free and will take place in the languages with the most demand. So if it is Polish, Spanish, English or any other language that you are interested in contact the centre on 051 849975 to register your details.

There will be an open day for all participants on Friday 12 March at 6pm. All are welcome to attend. For more information you can contact Sinead or Carmel on 051 849975 or email europedirect@waterfordcity.ie

One Book One Waterford Launch at Waterford Europe Direct Centre

‘One Book, One Waterford’ is a literacy initiative to celebrate 2010 the European Year of Combating Poverty and Social Inclusion. The Waterford Europe Direct Information Centre is working with the Home School Community Liaison Schemes (HSCL). The HSCL is a scheme which identifies and addresses issues in the community of participating schools. This project aims to tackle the issue of literacy in the communities.

‘One Book One Waterford’ encouraged people of the same community to read the same book at the same time. The book chosen is Titanic Tragedy by Vincent McDonnell. From now until the summer the city becomes one giant book club, as the first ‘One Book, One Waterford’ gets underway. Titanic Tragedy is the story of the world’s most famous shipwreck. This school and community based literacy project was launched in St Paul’s Secondary School on Tuesday 2 March at 11am by the Mayor of Waterford Cllr. John Halligan with the book’s author Vincent McDonnell as the guest speaker.

Please contact Niamh Baldwin, Schools and Children’s Librarian or Sinead O’Higgins, Europe Direct Centre for more details. Please click here to read more.

EU Diary Service

www.eurodiary.ie is a dedicated portal for all EU-related events in Ireland and activities of interest to Ireland happening elsewhere, whether official, unofficial, political, NGO, local, regional, lectures, seminars, workshops, meetings, rallies etc, as well as any European Institution's agendas and consultations - European Commission, Parliament, Council of Europe etc.

The aim is to make the site a useful tool for anyone who is either interested in Europe-related events, or who is planning one and wishes to make sure it does not clash with other similar events.

To have your event/meeting put on the Eurodiary website, please email the details too:

events@eurodiary.ie

Competition "Design a Poster for Europe Day 2010" - winner

Congratulations to the winner of the poster competition, Ms Maria Mileńko from Poland! And to the two runners-up, Diana Jung from Portugal and Martin Geier from Germany. We look forward to meeting them in Brussels in May. Thanks to everyone who participated in the competition and to all those who voted for their favourite.

http://www.designeurope2010.eu/index.php

Commission launches search for European Green Capitals 2012 and 2013

The search has already begun to find the cities that will become the next European Green Capitals. The prestigious European Green Capital Award recognises cities that are at the forefront of environmentally-friendly urban living. Earlier this year, Stockholm and Hamburg were named as the first winners of the title for 2010 and 2011, respectively. Now the race is on to find the cities that will claim the coveted title for 2012 and 2013. The annual award is intended to help European cities become more attractive and healthy places – "fit for life". All European cities with more than 200,000 inhabitants can now apply for the titles. The award scheme is open to the 27 EU Member States, candidate countries (Turkey, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and Croatia) and European Economic Area countries (Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein). In countries where there are no cities with more than 200,000 inhabitants, the largest city will be eligible to participate. Cities can apply via an online application form. The deadline for applications for both the 2012 and 2013 titles is 1 February 2010. The winners will be announced at a special awards ceremony during the European Green Capital Conference in Stockholm in October 2010.

Read more about the European Green Capital Award on:

www.europeangreencapital.eu

Picturing Europe Competition

The Audiovisual Service of the European Commission is launching a competition to produce a video clip about Europe. Competition entrants have a maximum of 3 minutes to show what Europe means to them. At least 50% of the images used must come from the videos available on the AV Services website.

The prize: 10,000 Euros with the winner announced during MIPTV at Cannes in April. Closing date of the competition: 15 March 2010
Rules:
http://ec.europa.eu/avservices/content360/rules.cfm
Download :
http://ec.europa.eu/avservices/content360/index.cfm

Photo Competition: “The euro: What does it mean to us?”

The Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN) is organising a photo competition with the theme: “The euro: What does it mean to us?”

It is intended for teams of young people aged 14 to 18. Each team will be asked to submit a photograph with a caption. This will be judged by a Europe-wide jury, which will then declare one winning team in each of the 27 EU member countries. Of these 27 winners, the seven highest scoring teams will be invited to an awards ceremony in Brussels in May 2010, where the winner of the first prize will be announced. The ceremony will also be attended by several of the personalities involved in the judging and press representatives. For more details please click: http://euroinphoto.eu

EU opens historical archives to public

To read more about this click: EU opens historical archives to public

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