Since the very beginning of the College of Europe, national days/weeks have become a fundamental part of the College traditions. Students organise cultural activities, high-level conferences, a typical meal from their home country and/or a party to let their colleagues see what makes their nationality so different and unique.
On 9 January we started off 2017 with the Chinese national week, followed by the Benelux week after which we will have numerous other ones spread over the upcoming months: Germany-Austria-Switzerland; Turkey-Azerbaijan; Hellenic National Week; Armenia-Georgia; Norway-Sweden-Lithuania-Estonia-Latvia-Denmark; Bulgaria-Macedonia-Serbia-Albania-Russia-Belarus-Slovenia-Bosnia-Herzegovina; Poland-Czech Republic-Slovakia-Ukraine; United Kingdom-Ireland-USA-Portugal; Hungary; France; Spain; Arab National Week and Italy.
As there are only a limited number of weeks, the students are asked to team up with students from other nationalities and to look for common but also for diverging identity characteristics to make their week a success. The students are responsible for drawing up the programme, to organise the various activities and to look for sponsors, but they are assisted in those matters by the Student Affairs Office.
Hereby some examples of last year's national weeks: Arab, British-Irish, Hellenic, Turkey-Azerbaijan, Baltic, Poland-Ukraine, Georgia-Israel-Armenia, Hispanic, Portugal and DACH national week.
