The Next Generation of Europeans

This is Europe

For the third edition of This Is Europe, Shahidha Bari journeys to the outer perimeters of the European Union – and beyond – in search of the stories that are shaping the future of life on the continent.

In a small village in rural Saxony, proximity to the Czech and Polish borders provides an excellent starting point for the most European of educations. Primary school teacher, Kamil Prisching, brings us along for a border-hopping school day, as his young German pupils travel to their partner school in the Czech Republic, and receive a crash course education on everything from the traditional practice of sheep-rearing to robotics – all in two languages, of course.

Meanwhile, on the border of Lithuania and Belarus, an imaginative new outreach project seeks to reclaim the infrastructure of ex-Soviet art schools, and make it available to the most vulnerable children in the region – with staggering results. Dalia Semeska is the artist, critic, and teacher behind a fairytale story of creativity, community, and adventure.

Dotted across the far corners of the Northern Periphery, an energetic network of young entrepreneurs are bucking trends of depopulation in their respective rural communities – and finding companionship in each others’ stories. Three of these renegade young business owners come together to revisit the Interreg program that helped them get started.

Participating programmes: Northern Periphery and Arctic Programme, Programme of Cooperation Free State of Saxony - Czech Republic and Latvia - Lithuania - Belarus

Powered by Interact. Co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

Produced by Frank Lockyer Palmer. A Tempo & Talker production.