PROGRAMME GIVES YOUNG LEADERS FIRST-HAND KNOWLEDGE ON EU POLICIES

From Tengku Noor Shamsiah Tengku Abdullah

BRUSSELS, April 28 (Bernama) -- The European Union Visitors Programme (EUVP)
has successfully provided opportunities for young, promising leaders from
countries outside the European Union to obtain a first-hand impression of the
European Union's policies, institutions and achievements.

It also enhances mutual understanding between professionals from non-EU
countries and their EU counterparts, EUVP head of Secretariat Ed van Koolwijk,
said Tuesday.

This being the case, he said the unique tailoring of each programme to the
participants' individual requests makes it a once-in-a-life time opportunity not
to be missed.

"It has been in operation since 1974. A EUVP visit consists of an
individual five- to eight-day programme of meetings with EU officials at the EU
institutions in Brussels, Strasbourg and Luxembourg," he told Bernama here.

The annual programme is jointly supported and administered by the European
Parliament and the European Commission.

Ed, who took office as the head of Secretariat since 1998 said: "This year,
"we have invited 205 young professionals including government officials and
journalists from outside Europe but only 160 are expected to take part in the
year round programme."

In its first year of operation, he said the program was only open to
Americans, its original impetus being to improve knowledge and understanding of
EU development specifically among young potential leaders from the United States
whereby five people were invited for the programme.

Since then, however, the soft spoken Ed, who hails from the Netherlands,
said EUVP has expanded over the past 35 years to include many more countries.

"In 2006 alone, 183 selected participants from over 70 countries around the
world visited the Institutions of the European Union in Brussels and
Strasbourg," he said.

Those eligible to participate are government officials (local, state and
federal), journalists, trade unionists, educators, officials of non-profit,
non-governmental organisations and other professionals aged in their mid-20s to
mid-40s with career-related interests in the European Union.

All programmes are coordinated and arranged by the EUVP Secretariat in
Brussels.

According to Ed, the programme of meetings is arranged on the basis of the
areas of interest expressed by the visitor so that it can be of maximum benefit.

EUVP participants are selected by a committee chaired jointly by a Member of
the European Parliament and a Member of the European Commission.

The selection committee usually meets every July.
-- BERNAMA