For the first time, hundreds of secondary school pupils from all over the European community come to the European Parliament in Strasbourg to discover more about Europe and each other, as part of the first ever Euroscuola programme. Welcome speech by the Parliament's information director, Francois Brodry.

Euroscola (T)

First Euroscola at the European Parliament in Strasbourg: extracts

SOUNDBITE (French) Francois BRODRY, Director for Information, Today you are witnessing A First and a First Experience that we are doing. The meeting in Strasbourg, in the very hemicycle of the European Parliament, of more than 600 young students from 11 of the 12 countries of the community who come here to discuss the future of Europe. try to learn a little by meeting other young people from other countries about the reality of European integration and who will try to convey, through their spokesperson and their rapporteurs, their wish that we will be happy to convey to the competent authorities of the European Parliament.

SOUNDBITE (French) Francois BRODRY, Director for Information, You are sitting here in the very Chamber of the European Parliament. Each place you occupy is a place of MEP elected by universal suffrage, with the exception of a few places here on the far right, reserved for Mr Jacques Delors and the Brussels Commission and here on the far left, reserved for the Council of Ministers of the European Community. Each of these two Community institutions must come to account to the elected representatives of the peoples of the Community on the future of Europe.

SOUNDBITE (French) Francois BRODRY, Director for Information,This is where Europe is built. During all plenary sessions of the European Parliament. And in the same way that MEPs are elected by universal suffrage on a political programme, on political lists, in the same way, we wanted to ensure that you are not here in a group representing your nationality, each grouped around his or her teacher or principal. But from this morning, we wanted to make this day a real experience of encounters with young people through the sensitivity test you answered during breakfast.

SOUNDBITE (French) Francois BRODRY, Director for Information, And that's also why we wanted the &ldquo;Euro Game&rdquo; game you played during lunch to be a game that includes teams from all the countries of the community or teams from at least four countries in the community for each team.