As you know, the month of May is celebrated as the month of Europe, following Robert Schuman's famous speech on the 9th of May 1950, which set the foundations for the European Union as we know it. One of the missions of Lille Metropole's Brussels office is to work on the development of a real european culture throughout the metropolitan staff, particularly within the context of Lille Metropole's shared border with Belgium and close proximity to Brussels. In order to carry out this mission, Lille Metropole's Brussels office organises regular events, workshops, visits and meetings with the teams in Lille Metropole - this strong link enables a close relationship between the stakeholders in Brussels and Lille Metropole's teams, as well as the reinforcement of a common european identity. The month of May was therefore a key opportunity to organise activities and events around the theme of Europe.

Lille Metropole's Brussels office provided different channels through which municipal agents could engage with Europe. First of all, a series of articles were published - these related to the electoral process as well as european history and integration. Furthermore, a quiz was put together to test the agents knowledge regarding the EU institutions, european culture and historic dates. There were prizes for the winners, including a trip to Brussels to visit the various european institutions. The articles and the quiz enabled municipal agents to freely engage with the theme of Europe through different channels.

Beyond an information campaign and the quiz, Lille Metropole also put together a training session for any employees that wanted to learn more about the history of the european project, the development of EU competencies, the roles and responsibilities of the european institutions, and how the EU shapes our daily lives. In order to make the session as interactive as possible, the training was centered around a serious game named "We are Europe". "We are Europe" is a collaborative game in which participants put themselves in the shoes of local representatives who are encouraged to work together in order to develop a fictional municipality, in line with a political mandate which focusses on topics such as sustainable development or healthcare. Players pick cards, which are associated to possible actions (such as reinforcing mobility infrastructure or building a library) and must work with other players to gather sufficient points (in areas such as expertise or financial ressources) to achieve the common goal of bettering the lives of the inhabitants of the fictional municipality. On the back of the cards, the players could find information relating to the european Union, its history, competencies, institutions and budgets, enabling them to learn more about the european project, all while having fun and getting to know each other better !   

This serious game is the result of the work carried out by Lille Metropole over the course of previous editions of the european month of May. In 2022, Lille Metropole set up a challenge entitled "Put Europe into your projects"; this challenge consisted of creating a project, as a team, with a european aspect to it. A jury was responsible for selecting the best projects, and the winners were awarded with a study visit to a european capital in relation to the project they developed! This game was therefore fully developed and put together in-house, ranging from the idea of the game, to the conception of the board and rules, to the printing of the materials. The game is freely available at Lille Metropole's headquarters for municipal agents who wish to learn more about Europe.

Finally, a group of 25 agents had the opportunity to come to Brussels to visit the european Parliament and the European House of History. This was another opportunity to interact with european institutions and to learn more about european history and identity. There was also a meeting with five members of the european commission, all members of different DGs - this meeting was an opportunity to talk about about their missions, the links between EU and local authorities, as well as the implication of citizens in EU policy-making.

Overall, it was another packed month of May, filled with various meetings and events to celebrate the european project and opportunities to engage with it. We are already looking forward to next year, which will be particularly special as it will mark 75 years since Robert Schuman made the speech that changed the course of european history.