Three National Councils of the European Movement International (EMI) in Estonia, Finland and Ireland, concluded a joint project within the framework of the Leonardo da Vinci programme at the end of May.

The European Movement (EM) in Estonia sent three interns to study project management and communications skills at the EM Ireland and EM Finland in September 2010 and March 2011. The internships lasted for three months and were part of the Leonardo da Vinci vocational training programme. All three interns acquired new valuable skills during their trainings and the project contributed to strengthening the contacts and the network of the EMI National Councils.

The participants of the Leonardo da Vinci mobility placement programme strongly recommended to repeat this exercise in other National Councils.

Mirjam Sutrop, who worked in the team of EM Ireland, remarked that she had learned a lot from helping to organise a joint EM Ireland/EM Greece conference and from researching internship opportunities for Irish graduates in EU institutions. She also appreciated the friendly atmosphere at EM Irelands office.

Annemari Paas and Sandra Metsis were very satisfied with their learning and work experience at EM Finland. Ms Paas mostly worked with JEF Finland and helped to compose a booklet on federalism during her internship. Ms Metsis was involved with different EM Finland projects, such as “Under the European Sky” and “Erasmus for schools”. Both appreciated the opportunity to learn and to work at the EM Finland and would recommend it to other young people interested in the work of NGOs and in raising European awareness.

The executive director of EM Estonia, Kristiina Ling, underlined the successful outcome of the project, saying that EM Estonia has managed to strengthen contacts with the other two national EM councils and has been able to take over new useful practices. She highlighted that in March 2011 EM Estonia started a new internship programme that was designed on the basis of EM Ireland’s similar programme. Thanks to the improvement of links with EM Finland, EM Estonia and EM Finland successfully received funding for a joint youth project that starts in September 2011. Ms Ling concluded that EM Estonia is interested to start similar projects as the Leonardo da Vinci mobility programme with other EMI National Councils and would encourage the others to do the same.