"Our aim was to have our students/citizens get to know their partners better with a view to a better communication and acceptance of each other in their future life. It involved learning about cultural heritages, acquiring cultural competences but also getting a more critical mind so as not to fall prey to manipulation and prejudices.In the second year of the project, one mobility took place since the French could go to Latvia in December 2019 but the pandemic unfortunately prevented us from welcoming again the Latvians in France. However, over the 2 years of the project, a total of 88 high-school students (44 Latvian and 44 French) exchanged, met, worked together, discovered history and traditions, attended classes, lived in their partners' families (in the first year) or stayed at a hotel (in the second year), experienced another way of life and last but not least improved their command of English ! They were sensitized to European current issues and became aware of what being a European means. As for the Latvian and French teachers, they also developed their intercultural competences and learnt from each other by observing different teaching practices, reflecting and exchanging on them with a view to improve their educational skills. In today’s Europe there are many threats to democracy and our youth must be made aware of the value of being able to express themselves freely. The freedom of a democratic country is often taken for granted and if our European students/citizens fall behind in essential qualities needed to be able to take part in and contribute to a democratic society, democracy is endangered. We hope that thanks to this project these young people will take a more active part in society. The experiences gained throughout the project will trigger the students' reflections on who they are, their place in Europe and in the world. The improvement of such a general ""European Competence"" prepares them for living and working in Europe. Our project has a long-life learning dimension."

EU Erasmus+ Project Populism in Modern Europe. A treat to democracy or a part of it?The aims of the project are to analyze the increase of populism in Europe. Since after the end of World War 2 populism has been passive as a means of spreading opinions in Europe. This has radically changed since the 1980s. We have seen a constant development of populistic groups in our society and today populist has reached a high level of influence and power in all of Europe. This includes both left and right-wing populism. Today we see actual examples of populism in politics but there is also a widespread usage of the term when wanting to discriminate against political opponents or creating negative public opinions.The aim of the project is to analyze the role of populism in a democratic society and create awareness of its positive and negative aspects but also to enhance knowledge of what populism really is.In order to do so we want to study the causes and background of populism and create strategies to prepare students to become aware of democratic values in The European community and the world.The following points are been studied in the project:•What is populism and how can we understand it?• Historic background of populism•Populism and democracy – the correlation between them•Populism and effects on the European values and democratic institutions•Why and how populism is used in the political arena•Strategies to recognized and create consciously ability to accept or reject populist agendas•What types of people are most susceptible to populism and how the political groups use it•The role of schools in the creation and education of democratic citizens•implementation of democratic values in the educational system. The overall aim is via these points to make awareness among youngsters of the situation in their local, regional, and European society by deepening that knowledge when comparing and facing several different political and cultural aspects in everyday life. All in the spirit to increase the feeling and belonging of European citizenship. The whole project will be based on today’s leading scientist data, such as Cas Mudde and Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser among others. We are 5 European high schools in Sweden, Greece, North Macedonia, Italy, and France. The project will include more than 1200 youngsters and teachers at a secondary level in 5 EU countries, we will work using conferences, courses, and workshops to study and analyze the main objectives of our project. Politicians and EU representatives will be invíted to participate. Due to the subject nature, we will invite NGOs and the public, in general, to participate during our meetings.We planned to have a living and democratic discussion on our websites and eTwinning site, with our development reports and results.We will show our students and to the public in general, the threat that populism has in modern Europe.By making this project we hope to create students that are prepared to tackle the threats against democratic values in Europe.