Each year, on May 9, we celebrate the founding of the European Union in 1950. It is the 73rd birthday of the European Union; the day on which out of the ashes of a totally destroyed continent, the European Union was born.
The vision of ‘Unity in Diversity’ has brought the European Union unprecedented peace and prosperity over the last decades. Since its foundation, the European Union has developed strong ties with partner countries around the world and over the past 47 years, the European Union and Kenya have built a partnership that has become stronger and stronger.
Today, the EU and its 27 member states are Kenya’s largest trading partner, second investment partner and key development partner. We have been deepening this partnership even further through the EU-Kenya Strategic Dialogue, which we launched, with the Government of Kenya last year.
The EU Delegation to Kenya and the 19 member states' Embassies represented in Kenya attach great value to deepening our ties with the people of Kenya, especially young Kenyans who represent 75 per cent of the population. We will also intensify our exchanges between young Kenyans and young Europeans.
The theme of Europe Day 2023 is 'Skills for young Kenyans. Last Friday, May 5, we held our Europe Day celebrations at the main campus of the University of Nairobi to focus on opportunities and skill developments for young Kenyans, with the generous support of the university.
The EU wants to contribute to providing opportunities for the millions of talented youth through supporting start-ups in the tech and creative sectors, through technical and vocational training and through exchange programmes for studying in Europe, such as our Erasmus + scholarship programme.
The first part of the afternoon was dedicated to a Study in Europe fair where young Kenyans had the opportunity to discover how they can travel and study in Europe, in order to develop their skills. We also highlighted the work of Kenyan partners of the EU Delegation and EU member states in virtual reality for skills development and the huge potential for involvement and employment in the cultural sector.
Taking the cultural theme further, in the evening, we launched the EU-Kenya Musical Xchange platform. We are partnering with the Ministry of Sports, Culture and Heritage to develop young Kenyan musical talent though a Kenyan/European mentorship and exchange programme to bring the Kenyan sound to the international stage and offer young Kenyans new opportunities.
We were honoured with the presence of chief guest Cabinet Secretary for Defence Aden Duale and CS for Cooperatives and Small and Medium Sized Enterprises Simon Chelugui, Culture PS Jonathan Mueke and our host, the vice chancellor of the University of Nairobi, Stephen Kiama.
The programme was rounded off with cutting-edge musical performances by many talented young Kenyan artists, such as Bomas of Kenya, and a grand concert finale by none other than Octopizzo.
Kenya's ties with Europe are multifaceted and Kenya and the EU share the same vision for a green transition and human-centred digitalisation of our economies to provide sustainable jobs and growth. These will be priority areas for our future collaboration. The EU also highly appreciates Kenya’s increasing engagement in the region, including in Somalia, Ethiopia, the DRC and lately Sudan.
Despite the festivities, let us not forget all those millions suffering from hardship, hunger, conflict and war, be it in the Horn region or elsewhere, including in Ukraine. Together with Kenya we take a strong stand for the international rules-based order and hope that peace will prevail everywhere so that senseless human suffering stops.
EU Ambassador to Kenya. @EUAmbKenya @EUinKenya
