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Anastasia Balezdrova

After a few days Thessaloniki will be officially declared the European Youth Capital 2014. The application of the second largest Greek city had been approved despite, and in the midst of, the worst economic crisis, in November 2011.

"Thessaloniki has been preferred primarily for the way we have selected the activities that will take place," Deputy Mayor Maria Pashalidou who is in charge of the project said, adding that the selection had been made by the young people in the city with the assistance of about 50 non-profit organisations.

"Our goal was, and still is, not to make people do things but to provide them with a field of activity. And this is not easy," added Mayor Yiannis Boutaris. In his words, the selection of Thessaloniki as the European Youth Capital is an opportunity for the city to change its appearance.

"About 120,000 young people aged between 18 and 25 live in Thessaloniki, many of whom are students and they all are active in the heart of the city, where they can express their talent. As a municipality, we want this whole organisation to leave something for the city," said Boutaris.

The programme of events is divided into 12 parts that match the number of letters in the name of the city of Thessaloniki and the months of the year. Within its context, young people from around the world will visit Thessaloniki and will participate in scientific, cultural and sporting activities.

The organisers state that private companies and organisations will cover almost the entire budget for them. They will not give money to the municipality but will undertake to organise a wide variety of events. So far, only 2,000 euro from the municipal budget have been used whereas the budget of the programme activities undertaken by the associates amounts to around 900,000 euro.

One of the messages that the organisers want to communicate to young people is associated with the xenophobia that has recently been widespread in many countries. "We will pay particular attention to immigrants among the young people who will be rewarded for their skills and talents. It is not important for us if these children were born and raised in Thessaloniki or if they arrived at a certain age. When they live in the city, they have equal rights with all others in terms of the services that the municipality provides", states Babis Papaioannou, spokesman of the organisation on the part of the municipality.

One of the activities in this direction will be the renaming of one of the parks in the city "Park of Nations" and it is possible that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will attend its opening.

The logo of the programme has a similar meaning. "It connects the past with the future. The hairstyle is reminiscent of that of modern youth and, at the same time, of a helmet from ancient times. The face is dark in colour precisely because we wanted to emphasize our efforts to fight xenophobia and racism. At the same time, however, it is reminiscent of an old clay pot," states Maria Pashalidou.

For environmental and financial reasons, there will be no materials printed on paper. Anyway, young people are using the social network Facebook for all meetings concerning the organisation. In addition to the website of the event, www.thessaloniki2014.gr, in a few days, the information on the programme and activities will be available though applications for mobile phones and computers.