Nearly 170 representatives of the regions of Europe participate on Thursday and Friday, in Ponta Delgada (Portas do Mar), in the annual Eurydice forum, the mobility and juvenile training program of the Assembly of the Regions of Europe (ARA) administrated, in 2008, by the Azores.

The Eurydice Forum 2008, which reckons with the presence of delegations of German, French, English, Spanish, Norwegian, Croatian, Russian, Italian, Rumanian, Bulgarian, Belgian, Swiss and Polish regions, will debate, with several specialists, the issues of the regional identity in an united Europe.

The participating regions annually meet to discuss issues connected with the employment of the youngsters implicating the acquisition of new competences in the European space, participating also in the Forum in the Azores, the director of the Vocational Mobility and representative of the Government of Quebec (Canada), Alfred Pilon, which happens that for the first time in an European meeting of this type, and by Azorean initiative.

Of the two days work program, which has beginning on Thursday at nine o’clock and that closes on Friday at 17.30, two conferences with several regional and European orators make part.

On Thursday, at 10.45 o’clock, the conference on the European regionalism takes place, and on Friday, at 14.30, another one is scheduled about the vocational mobility in the united Europe.

The Eurydice, created in 1985, was the first mobility program in Europe, being directed, since January, by the president of the Government of the Azores, Carlos César, who presides at the program, and by Rui Bettencourt, regional director for Employment and Vocational Training, invested of the functions of secretary-general.

At present, there are in the Azores 35 young Europeans doing a traineeship for six months in several islands and regional entities, being equally in Europe 33 Azoreans doing a traineeship in so different areas like tourism, engineering, architecture or computer science.

For 2009, there will be a duplication of vacancies for European traineeships in this program, being able to reach the 80.

With the purpose of participating in the Eurydice Forum 2008, there will be in the Region from Wednesday to Saturday, at invitation of Carlos César, the president of the Assembly of the Regions of Europe and vice president of the Parisian Region, Michèle Sabban.

The president of the ARA will be accompanied by the secretary-general of the organization, Klaus Klipp, which intervenes in the Forum, uttering a conference on the challenges of the regionalism in Europe.