Enlargement Labyrinth, a mobile, colourful 100 sqm installation composed of simple questionnaires posted on the colour panels making up the way through the labyrinth was set up, in the framework of the project Civil Trust Building, as an innovative format to attract citizens in various locations in Budapest, Bratislava, Vienna, Ljubljana and Udine during the one week tour that gathered all the project partners. ALDA was represented by LDA-s and local NGO-s team members.
They acted as the Western Balkan contact persons promoting EU enlargement among the citizens of EU member states through direct conversation with them, dissemination of promotional materials, and assistance in taking the “brave” ones through the labyrinth.
More than thousand interested citizens were attracted to visit the Labyrinth and the stands with the project visibility tools containing key information about the Western Balkan countries, their economy, cultural heritage, tourist destinations and development potential. Linguistic skills in English, German, Hungarian, Slovak, Italian, Serbian, Croat, Albanian, Romanian, were more than welcome while each of the team members was able to communicate in at least three languages needed. In this way, the passers-by in busy streets, squares, shopping malls and in parks who visited the labyrinth in their city, could also express their opinion about the present situation as regards the EU enlargement process and give comments about the lessons learnt during accession, while a number of them were interviewed for a documentary film. Particularly interesting were the promo materials containing the Western Balkan countries’ profile one side and the most popular national dish on the other.
The Labyrinth tour had its peak in Udine on Saturday 15th September during the traditional city festival FRIULI DOC, gathering hundreds of local/regional traditional food and wine producers, farmers, handicrafts who displayed their products and offered them to some one hundred thousand visitors during the four day long festivities. The labyrinth and the stands were located in the main city square and visited by many local citizens, visitors from the Region FVG and other neighbouring areas. Last, but not the least was the special children’s playground installed near the labyrinth where some old, traditional games were practiced by the local kids.
The one week Labyrinth tour was a real success in many aspects while its strong intercultural dimension – promoting both the EU enlargement and EU integration of the Western Balkans through active citizenship and cultural diversity was an excellent learning opportunity for the enthusiastic labyrinth team members, but also for the citizens visiting the stands and responding to the questionnaires.
ALDA is partner of the project “Civil Trust Building”, a co-operation and capacity building action developed by the European House, Budapest, Hungary, which includes LDAs in the Western Balkans as 7 local contact points for promoting EU integration and regional networking actions for improved understanding and awareness of both enlargement and integration related issues.
The project is supported by the Prince programme of the European Commission.
For further information please visit: www.civiltrustbuilding.eu
Stanka Parac Damjanovic
ALDA Regional Programme Coordinator