The chat with Vice president Margot Wallström brought together the commissioner and its staff to discuss with 18 schools from 12 European countries issues linked to the topic of ‘Taking the European Union forward: The next 50 years’. 

More than 250 students and teachers took part in the chat, participants asked questions about the 50th anniversary of the Union, its future, the constitution, European cultural values, education, official and regional languages, the preservation cultural identities and European citizenship. Other questions covered current communication projects such as Plan D.

After the chat, teacher Marie-Thérèse from Barletta (Italy) said: “I wanted to thank you for the great opportunity you gave to our pupils. They were really so happy to participate and chat with Commissioner Wallstrom.”

On 15 May the chat between MEP Graham Watson leader of the European Liberals and Democrats group and 15 European Schools from 12 countries focused on the question: 50 years later: What does the EU mean to you?

The next and last chat of the 2007 Spring Day campaign will take place on 12 June 2007. Chat guest will be the newly appointed European Commissioner for multilingualism Leonard Orban, who will answer questions from schools in three languages on the topic of ‘Language learning: The best for professional career and personal development’.