On Friday 22 January France and Germany celebrate “Franco-German Day” as an expression of their special friendship. Minister of State Werner Hoyer and his French colleague Pierre Lellouche will pay tribute to that friendship with a joint programme in Berlin and Potsdam.

1. Visit to the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) in Potsdam

At 12 noon Ministers of State Hoyer and Lellouche, along with State Secretary Schütte from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), will meet Professor Klaus Töpfer, IASS Director, Professor Hans-Joachim Schellnhuber, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), and Jean-Charles Hourcade, director-designate of the French partner institute, the Hôtel des sciences pour le développement soutenable, to discuss current climate-change issues and sustainable development. The politicians and experts will also answer questions from schoolchildren on this theme.

2. Joint press conference by Ministers of State Hoyer and Lellouche to mark Franco-German Day

3. Award of “Youth and Europe – Students Write for Newspapers” Prizes

During a school exchange, German and French schoolchildren wrote articles on Germany, France and Europe. These articles were published in newspapers in their home regions, and forty German and forty French classes took part in the project. The competition aims to increase schoolchildren’s curiosity about their neighbouring country, give them an idea of how journalists work, and sensitize young people in particular to European issues.

Ministers of State Hoyer and Lellouche will open the award ceremony. The competition was organized by the Franco-German Youth Office in cooperation with the Robert Bosch Foundation, the ARPEJ (French regional press association) and numerous German daily newspapers.

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