The Franco-German Youth Office (FGYO)

The Franco-German Youth Office (FGYO) is an international organisation serving to foster German-French collaborative efforts.

1. History

The foundation for the development of the Franco-German Youth Office (FGYO) was laid by Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and the French President Charles de Gaulle with the signing of the German-French friendship contract, the so-called “Elysée Contract“, on January 22, 1963. An intergovernmental agreement then led to the founding of an „Organisation to foster relationships between German and French youth” on July 5th of the same year .

Article 2 (1) of the founding agreement states explicitly: “The youth office has the task of tightening the bonds between youth of both countries and deepening the understanding of each other; to this end to stimulate, promote and where necessary enforce youth movement and youth exchange “

2. Organisation

The FGYO is an independent international organisation governed by a board of directors. Chairpersons of the Board of Directors are the Minister for Family, Seniors, Women and Youth, Dr. Ursula von der Leyen, and the French Minister for Health, Youth and Sport, Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin. Agents of the Board of Directors are the Secretaries General.

Since the 1 st of January 2004 the German Dr. Eva Sabine Kuntz and the French Béatrice Angrand have led the FGYO as Secretaries General. The 70 attendants of the Youth Office work in Franco-German departments in both main office locations – Paris – the home of the FGYO – and Berlin .

3. Figures

The FGYO had a 2007 operating budget of 20.5 million Euro, comprised of equal contributions from the German and French governments. In addition, special funding was approved by both foreign ministries specifically for exchanges with Central and East European countries and the South-eastern European countries. Furthermore the FGYO received support from the European Social Funds (ESF) for programs to benefit unemployed youth .

Since 1963 the FGYO has enabled about 8 million German and French youth to participate in nearly 300,000 exchange programs. The FGYO supports more than 11,000 encounters every year (more than 6,500 group exchange programs and about 4,300 individual exchange programs) in which about 200,000 young people participate .

4. Fields of activity

The FGYO operates on the principle of subsidiarity together with numerous partners .

The goal is to deepen the responsibilities in both countries to the relationships between children, youth and young adults, as well as youth employment. Toward this end to:

• reinforce the culture of the partner
• promote intercultural learning
• enhance professional qualifications
• strengthen collaborative projects for public engagement
• sensitise to the particular responsibilities of Germany and France in Europe
• motivate young people to learn the partner language

The Franco-German Youth Office is a competency centre for the governments of both countries and functions as advisor and coordinator between the various state levels and the civilian communities in Germany and France .

The FGYO supports its partners with questions related to financial, pedagogic and language aspects of exchanges. It informs, advises and offers assistance on the preparation of content and analysis of cooperative events, In this way the FGYO continually deals with the most current issues that youth in both countries are facing (including integration, early childhood development, youth culture, the future of Europe, environmental protection, scientific and technical matters).

Trainees, young job seekers, employed youth:
900 meetings between 9,000 youth per year: vocational schools, agriculture and trade schools, career development programs for unemployed youth, further education for employed youth in various sectors. Around 700 scholarships for early career practical training and 34 participants in the "Work at a Partner" program. Scholarships in the areas of cultural exchange and media. 20 programs for young artists with around 400 participants. 16 programs with trade corporations with 200 participants.

High school exchange:
Around 3,000 exchanges of high school classes with over 65,000 students. 2,196 students in the “Voltaire and Sauzay” individual several month exchange program; further teacher training in the area of exchange pedagogy.

Student exchange:
150 programs with about 3,000 students: bi-national seminars and workshops. Around 700 scholarships for training in companies, Franco-German projects, study exchanges at music and art schools.

Outside school youth meetings:
3,000 programs with over 25,000 participants: implemented by youth organisations, state partnership committees, sport and art and culture associations, and programs related to scientific and technical activities. Every year 400 youth receive a scholarship from the “On the move in France/Destination Germany" program to realise a personal project .

Learning the partner language:
340 programs: training for language animators, group interpreters and teachers, outside of school language courses and oral preparation for exchanges. Over 170 individual language scholarships for group leaders and managers of bi-national exchange events. Support for early learning of the French or Germen language through 220 language classes that 2,000 German and French children in Kindergarten, school groups, play groups or classes of the partner committees take part in. Publication of two and three language glossaries designed to facilitate exchanges. Glossaries have been published on subjects such as integration and equal opportunity, football and cooking.

Pedagogy of intercultural learning:
150 bi- and tri-national training and further training programs on the subject of intercultural pedagogy with 2,500 participants.
80 elementary school teachers take part in the Franco-German elementary school teacher exchange program. Development of pedagogic materials and accompanying research:

Future workshop:
Thematic events, organisation of individual events, information on youth and information disseminators, publicity activities.

Press and the media:
Workscholarships that enable young journalists to work in the other country. Workshops for young radio journalists. Seminars and thematic media tours on youth-relevant themes. Press work and media partnerships .

Third Country Program:
The FGYO has opened its programs to participants from a third country and supports about 250 tri-national events per year with around 7,500 participants (with a focus on the Central and Eastern European and Southeast European regions, as well as the Mediterranean Sea area). The third country programs are thematically oriented and are implemented in three phases and in each of the three participating countries.