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Coordinator of Transatlantic Cooperation welcomes increase in funding for the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange programme
The Coordinator of Transatlantic Cooperation in the Federal Foreign Office, Jürgen Hardt, Member of the German Bundestag, gave the following statement on 23 July on the announcement that the United States will increase funding for the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange programme (CBYX) once again, following a decrease in 2014:
I am very pleased that the US Government has decided to increase the funding for the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange (CBYX) programme once again. This is an important step towards strengthening cooperation and mutual understanding between our two countries. In their talks with our US partners over the past year, the Federal Chancellor, the Foreign Minister and other Members of the German Bundestag called for the funding to be raised again.
Taking part in the CBYX gives young people from the United States and Germany unique insight into the other country’s political culture, thus creating lasting transatlantic links for the future, so I am very pleased that the joint endeavours by civil society, the parliaments and the government to ensure stable funding for the CBYX have been successful.
Background information:
The Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange (CBYX) programme started in 1983, and is co‑funded by the German Bundestag and the US Congress. Its patron is the President of the German Bundestag.
The aim of the CBYX is to establish a network of personal contacts between young people in the United States and Germany in order to create better mutual understanding. To this end, CBYX scholarships enable 285 German school pupils and 75 young professionals to spend a year in the United States. Germany runs a reciprocal programme, hosting 350 young Americans each year.
After the United States reduced the funding by 50 per cent last year, the United States Department of State has now announced that funding will be increased to its original full amount of four million dollars for the programme in 2017.
