"European CNC Network - Train for Europe", a German project that brought together 24 vocational schools to build a small-gauge locomotive and wagons, won first prize at the Charlemagne Youth Prize 2010 award event on 11 May in Aachen. Second and third prizes went to "You are here", a book project (Ireland) and "BEST Engineering Competition BEC" (Bulgaria) respectively.

The European Charlemagne Youth Prize is granted to projects undertaken by people between 16 and 30 years old, which should serve as role models for young people living in Europe and offer practical examples of Europeans living together as one community.  The Prize is awarded to projects undertaken by young people which foster understanding, promote the development of a shared sense of European identity, and offer practical examples of Europeans living together as one community.

At a ceremony hosted by RWTH Aachen University, the first prize was presented by EP President Jerzy Buzek and Charlemagne Prize Foundation Chairman Michael Jansen, the second by MEP and former EP President Hans-Gert Pöttering, and the third by City of Aachen Mayor Michael Jansen.

Germany - "Train for Europe"

First prize went to the "Train for Europe" project  (Germany), a Comenius school partnership, created in November 2006 and co-ordinated by the Bad Kreuznach Vocational School, brought together over 1,500 trainees from 24 vocational schools to build a locomotive and wagons on the Airbus principle. The train has a gauge of 90 mm, a total length of around 8 metres, and runs on a 12 m circular track.

Ireland - "You are here"

Second prize went to  "You are here" project (Ireland), a book project in which 14 young people produced a "panthology" (pan+ anthology) on people born in or after 1980 who live and work on artistic, intellectual or activist projects in a country they did not grow up in. Starting with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the book looks at whether these young people really are writing from a freedom and plurality born in 1989 back into a new, wider and pan-European tradition.

Bulgaria - "BEST Engineering Competition BEC"

Third prize went to the "BEST Engineering Competition BEC" project (Bulgaria), organised by the Board of European Students of Technology BEST Sofia, which brought together 21 Europeans from 11 countries in 5 teams to design a robot that uses environmental sources of energy in collecting and dividing scrap and waste.

Prizes and selection procedure

The three winning projects will be awarded funding of €5,000, €3,000, and €2,000 respectively. Their representatives will also be invited to visit the European Parliament in the coming months.

The European Charlemagne Youth Prize is awarded jointly and annually by the European Parliament and the Foundation of the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen. The Polish youth project "YOUrope needs YOU" was awarded with the first prize in the European Charlemagne Youth Prize (ECYP) competition of 2009.

National juries, each consisting of at least two MEPs and one representative of a youth organisation, selected a national winner from each of the 27 EU Member States in March 2010. In April, the European jury, consisting of three MEPs, EP President Jerzy Buzek, and four representatives of the Foundation of the International Charlemagne Prize, selected the three winners from the 27 projects. Representatives of all 27 projects were invited to the award ceremony in Aachen.