The Youth@Kolozsvár 2015 project - Cluj Napoca’s bid for the title of European Youth Capital, along with the initiative itself of  the European Youth Forum  was presented in the European Parliament on Wednesday, the 9th of May at a conference organized by DAHR’s two MEPs,  Csaba Sógor  and Gyula Winkler. The conference was attended by the two MEPs’ guests as well.

Csaba Sógor, as co-organizer of the event, saluted the audience, made reference to his personal experiences in Cluj and emphasized the current multicultural character of the city: after centuries of German cultural domination, today the presence of the Romanian and the Hungarian language is accompanied by French, German and even Chinese thanks to the universities from the city. – Cluj would be the best choice for the European Youth Capital because it embodies European values both through its history and its present. University students constitute one fifth of the population: young people are always able to innovate and to renew themselves, to surpass the dark historical heritage and represent true multicultural values.

MEP Gyula Winkler declared that it was a special occasion to present the youth capital project in the EP on Europe Day. They couldn’t have picked a better occasion than the 62nd anniversary of the Schuman-declaration, a day worth celebrating in the EP, the House of Europe, the only institution of the EU, the members of which are directly elected. It was in the interest of Europe and its citizens that the EP gain stronger prerogatives and represent Europe’s diversity more intensely – claimed the MEP. Gyula Winkler stated that the EP was a scene for putting forward proposals and for listening to opinions, it was there that the initiators of the project should look for supporters and friends for their cause. The MEP added that young people representing youth organizations are the best ambassadors in this regard.

The initiative was presented by András Farkas, President of the PONT Group and developer of the project. He expressed his view that the Transylvanian team has the best chances to receive the award because they’ve already organized four public events with the participation of youth organizations, a virtual flash mob with over 1000 participants, a bilingual website and a facebook page with over 2 600 supporters.

If awarded the title, the Cluj team will focus on three major projects.

The QR-code project aims to bring together 4 900 volunteers in a flash mob forming the Youth@Kolozsvár 2015 logo at the exact time the Google satellite passes over Cluj, so that the logo will be visible on Google Earth and Google Maps.

The Cluj Never Sleeps project will place into the centre of attention the longest day of the year. During this day and night several entertaining and cultural events are scheduled, public transportation would function throughout the night and some trams would even feature smaller concerts.

The Share Collector project would try to motivate young people to take part in the most possible programmes. Local, national and international participant teams would attend events using point collecting cards and the teams with most points would take part in lottery.

In the second part of the conference András Farkas presented the Webkastély project the winners of which were present at the event as guests of DAHR’s MEPs Csaba Sógor and Gyula Winkler.

In his closing speech Csaba Sógor thanked András Farkas for his presentation of motivating projects. – What has been presented here prove that there are young people in Transylvania, minoritarian Hungarians and not only, for whom Europe, Romania and Transylvania is a value: they do a lot for the preservation of the cultural values of Transylvania. Many thanks for the young people for sharing their experiences with us! This enables us to see what young people can do for Transylvania, Romania and Europe.

The Hungarian MEP from Transylvania added that he hoped that the Romanian government would see the value of multilingualism and multiculturalism and take measures to support minorities in preserving their language, culture and heritage, because this was important for the country but for Europe as well.