Cultural Centre from Gudevitsa Village gets European Citizen’s Prize for 2015
The European Parliament (EP) has honoured the Future Now National Cultural Centre in Gudevitsa village with this year’s Citizen’s Prize for its contribution to better mutual understanding and closer integration in the field of culture and education.
The Future Now National Cultural Centre was nominated by Ilhan Kyuchyuk MEP (ALDE) and was selected as the best candidate by a national jury consisting of Svetoslav Malinov MEP (EPP), Momchil Nekov MEP (S&D) and Nedzhmi Ali MEP (ALDE).
In September the EP Citizen’s Prize for 2015 will be awarded at a solemn ceremony in Sofia, organized by the EP Information Office. All the 47 laureates from the 28 EU member states will take part in a central ceremony, to be held in October in Brussels.
The Future Now National Cultural Centre, based in the Rhodope village of Gudevitsa, Smolyan District, unites a team of professionals in the sphere of informal education. Presenting his nomination for the prize, Ilhan Kyuchyuk MEP said: “The Future Now National Cultural Centre and the team which creates School in Nature in the village of Gudevitsa, work hard in the sphere of youth activities, education and active citizenship in Europe. The team consists of young, seeking, positive and responsible people who have trained more than 600 children through the years.”
The other Bulgarian nominations for 2015 were the writer Georgi Gospodinov, proposed by Mariya Gabriel MEP (EPP) and the teacher Teodosi Teodosiev, proposed by Iliana Iotova MEP (S&D) and Emil Radev MEP (EPP). After the national jury had submitted its recommendations for the three Bulgarian nominations ordered by preference, the EP Citizens’ Prize jury announced the final decision. The EP Citizens’ Prize jury consists of its president Sylvie Guillaume, who is an EP vice-president, four other EP vice-presidents, two former EP presidents and two popular personalities.
The EP Citizen’s Prize Bulgarian laureates for 2014 included the volunteers from the Anastasia Dr. Zhelezkova Social Vocational Education Centre in Varna and the journalist Hristo Hristov. In 2013 the EP Citizen’s Prize was awarded to 43 persons and organizations from the EU member states, including Academician Valeri Petrov (now deceased) and Dr. Milen Vrabevski from Bulgarian Memory Foundation.
The European Citizen’s Prize
Since 2008 the Parliament awards the European Citizen’s Prize every year to projects and initiatives that facilitate cross-border cooperation or promote mutual understanding within the EU. The prize, which has symbolic value, is also intended to acknowledge the work of those who through their day-to-day activities promote European values.
Source: European Parliament Information Office