Special Agerpres correspondents Dana Purgaru, Cristina Zaharia report: "Three years ago we planted a seed, today is has grown into a forest," the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said on Tuesday evening, in Brussels, about the New European Bauhaus Festival, on the occasion of the official opening of its second edition.

"The seed of the New European Bauhaus was a very simple idea. We wanted to showcase what a better future looks like. A future that appeals to our eyes, our minds, our souls, where the environmental and social imperatives of today meet the visions of tomorrow. Where people from different countries and backgrounds come together to imagine and create a more sustainable, inclusive and, indeed, a more beautiful future," said the president of the European Commission, at the opening event of the 2024 edition of the NEB, organized at the Museum of Art and History in the capital city of Belgium.

Von der Leyen mentioned the three principles of the new European objectives, which "come to life" through the New European Bauhaus: beauty, sustainability and inclusion. "Every time I immerse myself in the world of the New European Bauhaus I am amazed. Amazed by how much richer, more diverse and more vibrant it has become. What started as a small project three years ago has grown into a vast movement that has given rise to so many great ideals and to so much progress on the ground, where really matters," said the President of the European Commission.

"In Spain, for example, you found a way to use cutting-edge printing technology to make sustainable buildings made of earth. Or in Estonia, where you created a 13-kilometer highway of natural pollinators that has attracted 22 species of bumblebees, but it also serves as a green space for the citizens of Tallinn. And also in Ukraine, the so called "Future School of Ukraine" initiative provides free adaptive architectural design for new, modern, inclusive schools in Ukraine that will be built all over the country. In other words, there are so many good ideas," said von der Leyen, recalling several successful projects to conclude that "The New European Bauhaus enriches the lives of citizens of communities in Europe and around the world."

The President of the European Commission emphasized that, currently, the New European Bauhaus community includes "over 750 non-profit organizations, a network of over 200 companies and public authorities, and a round table of esteemed high-level advisers from three continents," which, together, "reach millions of people."

"From here in Brussels we know that we can never match the creativity, the diversity and the ingenuity of the Bauhaus community. But we can give you tools and resources to spread the spirit and I am proud to have supported your work with over 250 million euros in funding, and I am proud that tomorrow we will officially launch the new NEB Academy. It will train a new generation of architects, engineers and construction workers. It will give them the knowledge and the skills they need to turn sustainable materials into beautiful spaces," said Von der Leyen.

The official also mentioned that this initiative enjoys support beyond the European institutions. "More and more member states across our European Union are using cohesion funds to support New European Bauhaus projects," she said, stating that, at the same time, "the New European Bauhaus is a project for and led by communities," and "this year's finalists of the European New Bauhaus Prizes are a true inspiration for all of us."

Speaking about the future of the New European Bauhaus, now "mature", Ursula von der Leyen stated that the next step is represented by "amplification of efforts." For the New European Bauhaus, this involves three aspects: ensuring stable funding, diversifying sectors - because "sustainability does not mean only where we live and work, but also how we live and work" - and building a competition.

Regarding funding, the president of the European Commission stated that, starting next year, through the NEB Facility, 120 million euros per year will be granted for research and innovation projects until 2027.

In his turn, following European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen's speech, the Belgian prime minister, Alexander de Croo, remarked her 'enthusiasm' invested in this topic of the New European Bauhaus 'movement,' which is about 'a sustainable, a more inclusive, a livable future for Europe," while not neglecting the ideas of beauty, comfort and attractiveness: 'This is about getting a future for ourselves and a better future for our next generations.'

'At some point people thought that the European Union would become some type of United States of Europe, with one dominant culture, which would erase all the diversity that we have. Actually, quite the opposite happened. If there is one thing in which we have been extremely successful as Europeans is that the European Union of today, 27 nations, with so many more different cultures and so much more diversity, is actually been maintained. We have maintained our different languages, we have maintained all our different ideas, and in our diversity, which we have nurtured, we are more unified than we have ever been. Still, we are in front of a major transformation, which is linked to many topics, one being, of course, climate change. Climate change forces us to rethink the way we live, the way we organize our societies, the way we organize our economy, but it also forces us to rethink the way we build, and the way we live and work in those houses,' said the Belgian prime minister.

He mentioned the Covid 19 pandemic to point out that our entire work life balance has faced a lot of challenges in the past couple of year, forcing us "to rethink a lot of the things which we thought to be fixed as fundamentals, and which today are shifting quite a bit. It's about our quality of life. Now, those two elements, climate change and quality of life really, represent, for me the, very heart of this Bauhaus Festival. First of all, it stands at the intersection of climate and of social policies."

The high Belgian official further reflected in his speech on the manner in which old and new technologies fusion to give us better solutions for a sustainable future: "To me, what really strikes me is how new technology is helping to revive old techniques. Old techniques such as, for example, reusing what was being called misfit materials, by using artificial intelligence to better put it together. Looking at the old textiles, such as flax and such as hemp, it amazes me to see how they can be used as a more effective way of using textiles, isolation, and the way we build. So this is really what energizes us, the combination of technologies of today that they're bringing back to life techniques that we have been using for such a long time here, in Europe. This is what we should try to do in the European Union, to create an environment which is a safe environment for technology to be experimented, for people to try to use it in the best possible way, to try to see how we can improve our lives, to deal with the big challenges we have, which is fighting climate change and integrating, you know, the solutions into a new way of life. One can only be incredibly energized by seeing everything that is happening here. And in the end, it's all up to us.'

'For in the end, the key thing that we have is our brains, it's our sense of entrepreneurship, it's our creativity, it's our desire to make tomorrow better than today. Making tomorrow better than today we can only do it together.'

The second edition of the New European Bauhaus Festival, organized by the European Commission in collaboration with the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, takes place in Brussels between April 9 and 13, in two locations, the Parc du Cinquantenaire and the Museum of Art and History.

The event, in which AGERPRES is a media partner, includes a diverse programme with interactive sessions, workshops, exhibitions and artistic performances and also hosts the awarding ceremony of the fourth edition of the New European Bauhaus Festival 2024. Access to the Festival is free.

The awarding ceremony of the New European Bauhaus Festival will take place on Friday, April 12, at the Museum of Art and History in Brussels. Following a voting process in which the public was invited to participate, 20 of the 49 finalists from the European Union, the Western Balkans and Ukraine will be rewarded with a total of 390,000 euros. Among this year's nominees there is also a project from Romania, "Faget Forest-Park; The Green Lung of Cluj," which aims to co-design and pilot an integrated management and multiple operation plan for the Faget Forest-Park.

The 2024 edition will include a special recognition for Ukraine's reconstruction and recovery effort and will focus on those EU regions that face the most intensive socio-economic constraints and the places most exposed to the pressure of the need to evolve towards a neutral economy in terms of carbon dioxide emissions, according to the organizers.

In addition to the event in Brussels, the Festival will take place throughout Europe and not only via the "Satellite Events" component.

According to a special report showing the achievements of the New European Bauhaus movement so far, published last week by the European Commission, from its launch in 2021 until March 2024, almost 380 million euros of EU funds have been allocated for this initiative, in order for the transposition of the European Green Pact into concrete changes aimed at improving the daily life of the inhabitants of the EU member states.

The 2024 edition of the New European Bauhaus Festival will take place between April 9 and 13 in two locations in Brussels, Parc du Cinquantenaire and the Museum of Art and History.

The programme of the second edition of the New European Bauhaus Festival can be consulted on the event website, https://new-european-bauhaus.europa.eu/festival_en

The event was also attended by Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, European Commissioners Iliana Ivanova and Elisa Ferreira, the Belgian Secretary of State for Economic Recovery and Strategic Investments within the Ministry of Economy and Employment Thomas Dermine and the Director General of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Hans-Joachim Schellnhuber. AGERPRES (RO - author: Dana Purgaru, editor: Mariana Ionescu, EN: editor: Cristina Zaharia)