On the 5th of May, Tbilisi’s Rike Park
transformed into a large celebration site, taking all visitors on a journey to
the European Union with activities taking place throughout the entire day. People
could explore the stands of 20 EU-member states and find out more about how the
European Union is helping to create new opportunities for Georgian citizens.

The Education Development and Employment
Center used the event to present the bilateral volunteerism platform “Time Bank,”
which has been created as part of the project “Georgian Civil Society
Sustainability Initiative” and aims to promote volunteering culture in Georgia.

Europe Day is celebrated each year on 9th
May, to commemorate the 1950-Declaration of Robert Schuman, the French foreign
minister at the time. He set out his idea for a new form of political
cooperation in Europe, the so-called European Steel and Coal Community, which
would make war between European nations unthinkable as they share their coal
and steel reserves. This initiative was the beginning of what is now the
European Union, which today unites 28 countries and 508 million citizens for
over 60 years of peace and prosperity.

This year’s Europe Day was held under the motto “Stronger Together” to highlight the strong relations between
Georgia and the European Union. In fact, 2019 is a double anniversary, marking ten
years of the Eastern Partnership and five years since the signature of the
EU-Georgia Association Agreement.