Main goals and program of Activities

The multilateral exchange is called “European Spaces – space exploration and European cultural space”. The project has gathered groups of young participants from French Guiana, Bulgaria, France, Spain and UK to analyze the intercultural and interdisciplinary aspects of European cooperation in space technology, and how space applications are benefiting our daily lives.

The 18 participants have met with professionals from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou and followed a guided tour of the Spaceport facilities. The group has also analyzed the impact of the space center’s activities on the local environment, in terms of cultural effect, natural environment, as well as means to encourage younger Europeans to engage in technical and scientific studies. The project has supported and raised the awareness of global challenges such as climate change, poverty and social exclusion, giving young participants from different background and social opportunities to develop as well as encourage their active participation in those global challenges as well as foster their civil consciousness.

The participants have been encouraged to reach out their own local community, with the conclusions on European cooperation in technology, on the importance of intercultural understanding and on the benefits of space research on our daily lives, as the blog of the Spanish group reflects (http://yiaspain.blogspot.com/). The intercultural dialogue has been evident during the 10 days of the project. In the true sense of the European priorities for 2010 the project helped to improve the perception of the mobilization of young people in the context of global challenges such as sustainable development, climate change, migrations and Global Millennium Goals. Even though it is a remote area – French Guiana is the only space port of Europe and it is essential for all young people to realize its importance as a common heritage and future through mutual understanding and cooperation.

The project has reached its goal of uniting young people of various social and religious backgrounds, who are interested in Space, and to use the Space exploration as a way to achieve common European cultural, environmental and scientific consciousness. The places that the participants have visited are of incredible interest for those that have a passion for Space. The encounters with young engineers and other workers from different European countries of the Space Center proved to the participants that they have the real possibilities to be a part of the European Space Program through the Intercultural learning and cooperation.

Since the European Union core values are creating active European citizenship, cultural diversity, social inclusion as well as participation of young people into different activities and their active engagement into the global challenges which the modern society presents them, we built a friendly and tolerant atmosphere, where the priority has been to approach the participants in a non-formal way to unleash their creativity. The project included a participant with physical disability.