After the foundation of EUROPEA the enthusiasm of early times has turned into a steady and firm cooperation between the member states. Thus, the following years saw continuous growth and safe development of our network.
The beginning of the last fifteen years of our common history was marked by two large scale projects, which had the intention to involve all EUROPEA national organisations. Leonardo da Vinci projects CHAVET (Challenges of Agricultural Vocational Education and Training; 2009-2011) and COPCHAVET (Coping with Challenges of Agricultural Vocational Education and Training; 2011-2013) provided a stable background for quality collaboration and made it possible for the EUROPEAns to meet several times a year at seminars, open-schools and student meetings.
Parallel to that other projects were run with a smaller number of partners but still with the participation of EUROPEA members and in fact, it has never stopped! With the new system of ERASMUS+ this trend was continued and it is going strong even nowadays! ALIE project (2005-2009) on authentic learning in land-based education, with 16 EUROPEA, partners (the forerunner of ALIVE, ANGIE and more); ALIVE (2008-2010), AQUAP (2010-2012), AGROCUA (2012-2014), ANGIE 2.0 (2012-2014), PEAT VALLEY (2012-2014), EBBEY (2013-2015), VITEA (2015-2017), CAROUSEL 2.0 (2015-2017), SILVAforum (2016-2018), LOASA (2016-2018), DIGITALIS (2020-2022), ERASDG (2021-2022) … to mention only some of the very many. Moreover, EUROPEA partners planned and realized countless number of mobilities, study visits and of course, CARREFOUR went on uninterruptedly.
Over the years excellent student competitions got established on the EUROPEA Calendar like the European Championships in Forestry Skills or the ever popular EUROPEA Wine Championships. Our students participated regularly in the cattle judging and wine tasting events at SIA Paris in France, Floristry Competition in Slovakia and at Ploughing Contest and Marmalade Fair in Estonia. The recently introduced AgroChallenge and HortiChallenge (started as AGROLYMPICS and HORTOLYMPICS) have quickly grown into impressive and admired events. This year we also had a great Landscaping Competition organised by our Swiss colleagues. And surely there is more to come!
Started way back in 1993 with 8 founding countries, today our organisation is proud to have more than 500 member-schools in 24 countries of Europe and the numbers are still growing. EUROPEA is 30 this year, stronger than ever and has nothing to fear about the future. We are one big family!
EUROPEA Meetings and Seminars (2009 – 2023) – What an impressive list!
2009: Benesov (CZ) – Strömma (SE)
2010: Pamplona (ES) – Brussels (BE)
2011: Kaszópuszta (HU) – Pultusk (PL)
2012: Aarhus (DK) – Zaragoza (ES)
2013: Bergen (NO) – Wageningen (NL)
2014: Baden (AT) – Locorotondo (IT)
2015: Riga (LT) – Luxembourg City (LU)
2016: Rotterdam (NL) – Piestany (SK)
2017: Naxxar (MT) – Tartu (EE)
2018: Blainville-sur-Mer (FR)/ Guernsey (UK) – Retz (AT)
2019: Cluj-Napoca (RO) – Jyväskylä (FI)
2020: Murcia (ES), cancelled due to Covid – Online seminar (Organizer: DE)
2021: Povoa do Varzim (PT) – Geneva/Basel (CH)
2022: Séte (FR) – Benešov (CZ)
2023: Piteå (SE) – … coming soon: Cáceres (ES)
Salute the founders and long live EUROPEA!
Acknowledgements: many thanks to all the founders for the information provided throughout the campaign 🙂
Photos: from the EUROPEAns and EUROPEA EG archives
