Mr. Georgios Stilianopoulos, Deputy Head of Mission of Embassy of Greece in Japan, visited Fuzoku Senior High School to give a presentation on the EU and his country under “The EU Comes to Your School” project.  Mr. Georgios Stilianopoulos taught the story and motto of EUand how EU relates to the world with display images.  We learned the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) had been established after the Second World War in order to stop wars happening again, and they decided that Member States should no longer run their own coal and steel industries, instead, these industries should be organized by people from all the countries involved.  ECSC worked for peaceful purposes and helped to rebuild Europe from the ruins of the war, and it led to the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Union (EC).  EU tries to make life better in all sorts of ways.

Mr. Georgios Stilianopoulos told us about his country Greece with some images of beautiful landscapes and historical architecture.  He taught us that it is said that Greece is the source of the European culture and many words of European language are derived from Greek.

In the question and answer time, there were many questions about EU from students, like that “What is the condition of participation to EU?”, “Why do the time it takes to admit to EU participation depend on the country?”, “Why is it possible that one country is admitted to EU at one time and many countries are admitted to EU at one time?” and so on.  And Mr. Georgios Stilianopoulos answered them politely one by one. There was also a question that is high school student-like “Is there any delicious foods/dishes you recommend in Greece?”

For about 90 minutes Mr. Georgios Stilianopoulos told us enthusiastically through interpreter, and students listened eagerly taking the notebook during his speech.  At the end of the symposium we saw him off with unanimous applause.