newsletter 01-13 digital

Welcome to the international newsletter from Hordaland County Council, giving you a short introduction to the countys international activities over the last 6 months. Although the list is not extensive, we nevertheless hope to give you an idea of the breadth of activities that takes place within our region. The next newsletter will be sent out before Christmas 2013. This spring has again been an active one with many international projects, both big and small. We are very happy to see that so many schools, municipalities, political committees, administrative personnel and others have used the opportunity to go abroad for new knowl-edge and inspiration.

2013 has also turned out to be the year of anniversaries; We celebrate 30 years of coopera-tion with the Orkney Islands, 20 years with Kaunas, Cardiff and Lithuania and our Brussels offi ce is 10 years.

The West Norway Offi ce in Brussels celebrated ten years of speaking on behalf of Western Norway in the EU capital Brussels, this June. Here is current director of the offi ce, Merete Mikkelsen with, from left, former director Gunnar Selvik, chair of the board and Chief Commissioner of Bergen, Monica Mland and board member since the start and director of the Munch Museum, Stein Olav Henrichsen

International Newsletter

Hordaland County Council | International Section | P.O. Box 7900, 5020 Bergen, NorwayEditor: Charlotte Lillefjre-Tertns | [email protected]

No 1 | 2013

Photo: Bernt Hjrnevik, ygarden kommune

International newsletter | No 1/2013 1

1 Our Partner regions Basse-Normandie, France

Visit to Hordaland in May to further strengthen the cooperation on education The educational cooperation is one of the strong fields in the cooperation between Hordaland and Basse-Normandie. It includes both the Hordaland class in Normandie and bilateral links between schools where the latter involves both the ex-change of apprentices and groups within the gen-eral studies visiting each other.

This March a visit was made to Hordaland with the aim of further strengthening this cooperation. Rep-resentatives came from both the regional admin-istration and the Academie de Caen as these two institutions share the responsibility for the upper secondary education in Basse-Normandie. The timing of the visit was set to match the Young En-trepreneurs fair and contest for Hordaland, that took place in Grieghallen on Monday the 18th of March. In addition to see how this event was orga-nized, the aim of the trip was to discuss how the cooperation, especially on vocational training, could be expanded. There was also a special meeting at Voss concerning the Hordaland class

The last person to participate in this visit was the director of the Lyce Professionnel Maritime et Aquacole in Cherbourg who wanted to explore the possibilities for cooperation with maritime schools in Hordaland

The group meets with apprentices from Knarvik vidaregande at FRAMO Flaty

Continued cooperation between the schools Bilateral links have been established between sev-eral schools in Hordaland and Basse-Normandie. Below are examples of the activities this spring:

Voss gymnas had a visit from two schools in Basse-Normandie, Lyce Alain Chartier and Collge Lyce Exprimental. 35 French pupils and four teachers spent a week in Norwegian host fami-lies, and besides experiencing family life they at-tended school classes, visited Voss, Bergen and the fjords, and even tried skiing. The program for this week in April was busy, and our guests really enjoyed their stay, especially thanks to the host families great hospitality. More

Students from Bayeux try out cross country skiing at Voss (photo: Sverre Herre)

Olsviksen videregende has cooperated with Lyce Salvador Allende in Herouville St. Clair since spring 2011 and this march it was 24 French pupils and 2 teachers that spent a week in Bergen. They participated in several classes and had excursions to places of interest (such as the science centre VilVite) before the week was ended with a Farewell Party that included entertainment, good food and dancing!

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Sandsli videregende skole cooperates with Ly-ce Hotelier Rabelais in Herouville-St. Clair and they use the European Leonardo da Vinci pro-gramme for regular exchanges. The exchange is focused on food preparation and apprentices from both schools are placed in restaurants or hotel kitchens. This spring, two apprentices from Sandsli spent 3 weeks in Bayeux, working, one in restau-rant Le Pommier and one in Htel Lion dOr.

Bjrgvin videregende has a collaboration with Lyce Sivard de Beaulieu in Carentan. In January, 18 pupils and 2 teachers from Bjrgvin spent one week in Carentan and this May it was time to return the hospitality. The French pupils and teachers visited Bergen and Bjrgvin from May 24th to 31st. The pupils were staying with each other and at-tended each others classes all to enhance the cultural exchange. During the week in Bergen it was time to see many of the sights in beautiful May weather. More

Students from Bjrgvin in front of the landmark Mont St. Michel in Normandie

An exchange year in Basse-Normandie By Jorid Skiple, coordinator, Voss gymnas This has been a great second year for Voss gym-nas and Hordaland County Council: The new ex-change program where pupils spend a whole year in France, in the region of Basse-Normandie is expanding! This year nine pupils have had the op-portunity to live in France, and with great success!

The pupils are hosted in dormitories during the week and in host families in the weekends, a com-bination that allows them to experience both French school and family life. The French hospitali-ty has made our pupils feel very welcome. The schools are focused on the academic success and wellbeing of our pupils, and the host families have really opened their homes, so the pupils have been well integrated. This is a great opportunity to learn the French language, to get to know a new culture and getting your school year validated in your di-ploma. More


20th anniversary marked with signing of new agreement In 1993, Hordaland County Council and the region-al council of Basse-Normandie signed an Agree-ment of Cooperation. This was based on the shared history and the common features of the two regions, but set out to create common projects within education, culture and economic develop-ment. 20 years down the line, many exciting pro-jects have seen the light of day. Flagship projects within both education and culture The partnership between our two regions is cur-rently seeing some important projects within the fields of culture and education. Within culture the joint exhibition project Meeting Point wood is currently largest activity. In this pro-ject museums in both regions have come together to display the traditional and contemporary use of wood. The exhibition opened in Caen in November 2011 and will open in Hordaland within the next year. The other big project is the Nordic culture festival Les Borales which takes place in Normandy every November and where several artists from Horda-land have taken part under the label Made in Horda-land. Within Education, the Hordaland class in Norman-die is the single biggest project. The number of pupils studying for one academic year in Normandy has grown from four pupils at two schools in the first year to 12 pupils at four schools in the third year, starting this fall. In addition to this there are almost ten schools engaged in bilateral projects, and this number is increasing every year. Effort to bring other partners in the regions together In addition to the projects that the regions initiate themselves, part of the effort is also to create new links between different institutions and organisa-tions in the two regions. This can be museums, festivals and other cultural institutions. It can be incubators, innovation structures or private compa-nies. Or it can be schools, universities or research institutions. The regions role in this is to create the opportunities for similar actors to meet and to ex-plore possible collaborations. 20 years of collaboration celebrated Although the original agreement was signed in November 1993 the 20th anniversary celebrations were scheduled for May 2013 in order to coincide with the always spectacular opening of the Bergen International Festival. A delegation from Basse- Normandie, headed by Vice President for Interna-tional relations Annie Anne and Vice President for Culture and Cultural heritage Pascale Cauchy,

visited Hordaland in the period between 20th and 24th of May. The programme started off with a full-day visit to the Hardanger region and the village of Ulvik on Tuesday, where the focus, among other things, was on the production of apple products, an area where Normandy has long traditions). The official anniversary dinner was held on Tuesday evening. Wednesday was very much influenced by the official festival opening outdoors with the open-ing show being the modern opera Marco Polo in the evening. The Thursday was dedicated to paral-lel, thematic programs within culture, education and innovation respectively.

Annie Anne with Nils Lekve, owner of Hardanger Juice and Cider factory in Ulvik New agreement signed On Wednesday the 22nd of May, a new Agreement of Cooperation was signed by Vice President for International relations Annie Anne and County Mayor Tom-Christer Nilsen, in the presence of the French Ambassador to Norway, Jean-Marc Rives. This agreement envisions an active cooperation within the fields of a) economic development, re-search and innovation, b)education and vocational training and c)culture and cultural heritage. Marine and maritime questions will be a cross cutting theme. An action plan outlining the activities for 2013-15 was signed already in November 2012.


Cardiff, Wales

The Hordaland class in Cardiff By Hege Cruickshank, Knarvik videregende When the seventeen Norwegian students went home for Christmas, it was for the first time for most of them since they arrived in Cardiff in Sep-tember. Christmas was a welcome break from school life, but right after Christmas their first round of exams waited - a challenging, but very useful experience. On top of all their schoolwork, they have had the study weekends in Norwegian. A tutor from home comes over five times a year to give lessons in the Norwegian curriculum. The best part of these weekends, no doubt, has been to meet with the other Norwegian students from the six different Cardiff and Barry schools, as they rarely have had a chance to meet for a chat. In May, they had an-other chance to see each other when the whole group went rafting in Cardiff Bay as Cardiff Council guests. At the Farewell Party in the splendid Mansion House the young Norwegians impressed all the guests with their excellent English skills and their beautiful Cardiff accents. Time has passed so quickly, the students said in their speech, but Car-diff will always be an important part of them. More

Study visit from Hordaland By Anita Fjellheim and Dianne Kilvr, Department of Organisation The motivation behind our project application to the Leonard da Vinci-programme was a wish for an increased international competence within interna-tional work, language and culture. Cardiff County Council and the West Norway Office in Brussels became our partner organisations and created

excellent programs in line with the themes specified in our application. Our expectations ahead of the project in Cardiff was to become familiar with how they solved their regional assignments, to exchange ideas and expe-riences related to problem solving, to gain insight and a greater understanding of a different work culture, to be more confident in the use of English and to become more familiar with a partner region that we had heard only positive things of. In Brussels, our goal was to get more knowledge of the EU decision-making processes, the opportuni-ties to influence this and how EU policy affects our daily lives. Further, we wanted to hear more about how other Norwegian actors in Brussels work (NHO, KS, the embassy etc) We feel incredibly lucky to have received scholar-ships that enabled us to increase our competence in this way and we are certain that this will be use-ful in our continued work. A special thanks to our host organisations for the effort that they put into this and to our own organisation for giving us this opportunity.

Anita Fjellheim together with Gill Murton, Committee & Members Services Manager in Cardiff County

Orkney Islands, Scotland

30 years of cooperation, the 13th of June On the 13th of June 1983, the Friendship agree-ment between Hordaland County Council and Ork-ney Islands Council was signed during a plenary session of the Hordaland County Council. The 30th anniversary will be marked by events on the Orkneys, both in June and in relation to the Christmas events as the main event for the 25th anniversary was held in Bergen.


Kaunas, Lithuania

Youth project on extremism Last year, Hordaland and Kaunas County Councils started a partnership around the theme Youth and extremism in Europe. Partners from five different European countries (UK, Italy, Portugal, Lithuania and Norway) developed the project European Youth Standing Against Extremism (EYSAE). The project will bring together 50 young people for a three-day seminar in London on how to counter extremist and fascist ideologies among youth at the local and European level. The seminar will be based on comparative perspectives, shared expe-riences and will aim to find innovative ways to en-courage young people in the fight against racism and xenophobia. This project has received EU funding through the Youth in Action program. In April, representatives of the five partners carried out a planning meeting in London but the actual seminar will take place in July 2013.

Project Active Society safe community To celebrate many years of cooperation, Kaunas City has invited their partner regions/towns to par-ticipate in the application for a project Active Soci-ety safe community within the Citizen for Europe programme. The aim of the project is to share experience with partners (NGOs, youth organisations, local gov-ernment, and police) on cooperation between so-cial organisations and local authorities in the pre-vention of crime and creating safe living environ-ment. The important aspect of the project is to show examples of inclusion of local communities in solving safety problems in their own dwelling dis-tricts. If the proposal is accepted, Hordaland will transfer good practice from the countys Depart-ment of Education, Bergen municipality and the NGO Night Ravens. The proposed project activity is a 3-day event, a conference and practical work-shop in Kaunas in the autumn 2013.

Thringen, Germany

Hordaland classes in Erfurt in electro and soon to be in general studies By Liv Skipenes, Asky videregende skole The 5th group of electro pupils from Hordaland has returned to Norway after about half a year in Ger-many. The nine pupils from Stord in the south to Linds in the north returned with good results and a lot of experience and memories. They have been well taken care of by the teachers at school and by the staff in the Internat 1, and their contact person Lusia Ihle, who has been the link between all par-ties involved in the placement at Andreas Gordon Schule. Teachers and the principal at Asky vide-regende have visited the pupils four times during their stay, and in the beginning of May, their exam was celebrated in the presence of leading politi-cians and the director of education in Erfurt, Dr. Werner Ungewiss.

The representatives from Asky were also present for a second reason, as Hordaland Fylkeskom-mune has established contact with a gymnasium in Erfurt, Albert Schweitzer Gymnasium. This fall, for the first time, our county will send six pupils for a year to a German gymnasium, where pupils from studiespesialiserende - "general subjects with study competence", will attend classes on the level of the Norwegian VG2. This class has already been es-tablished, and will be organised and mentored by Asky videregende skole just like the electro class. Next school year we will therefore have 15 pupils in Erfurt, having an exciting school year and getting a very special, interesting and useful compe-tence. We wish everybody good luck! More


Course in intercultural communication A delegation of 9 business leaders and entrepre-neurs from Thringen visited Hordaland the first week of June. They participated in the European Social Fund project: International business com-munication with English as an intermediary lan-guage organised by the Europa-Service-Bro and the Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Sd-Thringen. The main objectives were to strengthen English language skills, establish branch related business contacts and gain international experi-ence. The companies represented different branches like mechanical processing and construc-tion, technology, equipment etc. International Sec-tion organised the programme in Hordaland for the group. In addition to information about Hordaland like business and economic development, Norwe-gian history, political and administrative manage-ment structure and regulations for trade and cus-toms, the group visited different institutions and companies in Bergen, Asky, Ostery and ygar-den. These visits ranged from the large petroleum related industry to smaller manufacturers.

The group receives information about the Department of Geo-physics at the university up on the roof! In summing up the week the participants expressed how their English skills had improved. They also found it very interesting to learn more about Horda-lands strong industries as well as the smaller in-dustries. Contacts for possible future cooperation had also been made.

Edinburgh, Scotland

Broad approach to cooperation within culture By Anna Elisa Tryti, Director of Culture and Sports Hordaland County Councils Department of culture and sports is currently building up a broad specter cooperation within culture, sports and outdoor ac-tivities with Scotland, with a special emphasis on the partner regions Edinburgh and the Orkney Is-lands. This is built up after the same model as for example the cooperation with Basse-Normandie,

meaning that there is a collaboration both at the political and administrative level, as well as be-tween different institutions. The Committee for Cul-ture and Resources was in Edinburgh in April and there have been visits, in both direction between personnel within the library and cultural heritage field. Scholarships from the Leonardo da Vinci pro-gramme have been important tools in establishing this exchange. Within cultural heritage, cooperation is being built up, in particular towards Historic Scot-land. The cooperation within outdoor activities, art and cultural dissemination is being followed up.

Five librarians to Edinburgh with Leonardo scholarships By gst Magnsson, Hordaland County Library This February, five librarians from Hordaland re-ceived scholarships from the European Leonardo da Vinci programme in order to spend one week in Edinburgh to study the citys libraries more in detail. The five participants were Bente Bing Kleiva (Meland municipality), Siv Ryneland (Kvam mu-nicipality), Inger Dyrnesli (Voss municipality), Eldrid N. Srnes (rstad upper secondary school) and gst Magnsson from the County Library. During this week, we visited the main library in Edinburgh, five other libraries in the city and a mo-bile library. In addition to this, we had a very good introduction to the library's digital initia-tives, infor-mation about the program Edinburgh reads (with programs for all age groups) and the cooperation they have with social services in the community. Edinburghs library app is the first of its kind in the UK. We also visited their two new libraries at Drumbrae and Craigmillar. They are both a model for the future library and local service delivery with library, housing, health and community police services all in one place. This means better effi-ciency for both the customers and the community.


1 Cooperation through international organisations

Conference of Peripheral and Maritime Regions (CPMR)

Hordaland is one of 156 member regions in CPMR. The CPMR works to secure a development across the European regions, regardless of their geo-graphical location. More Maritime issues and cohesion policy continues to be among the core subjects for the CPMR. The activities this spring has included a seminar on the reduction of sulphur emissions from ships in the Channel and the North Sea, organised in Dunkirk, France in March. They have also been engaged in the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy, formu-lating and official opinion at the moment when the tripartite negotiations started in early March. Within the framework of the European Maritime Day on 22 May 2013, CPMR and the City of Goteborg organ-ised a workshop called: EU Regions: pathway to boost maritime coastal tourism . In terms of the cohesion policy, the CPMR has positioned themselves in relations to the negotia-tions on the multi-annual financial framework 2014-2020. The CPMR, which is in very close contact with European Parliament, strongly supports revi-sion points that would enable financial framework to remain truly European rather than return to the Member States. They have also tried to put special emphasis on the special situation of islands. This September CPMR will celebrate its 40th anni-versary in Bretagne where it was once founded.

Keeping the shoreline clean and free of pollution is important for many regions were tourism in as important industry such as here in the Halland region in Sweden

North Sea Commission (NSC)

The North Sea Commission was founded in 1989 as a sub-commission to CPMR, in order to facilitate and enhance partnerships between regions by the North Sea. The NSC has 36 member regions, 15 from Norway. More Involvement in the thematic groups Following a decision in the Executive Committee in Hordaland in March 2012, political and administra-tive representatives from Hordaland have been appointed to all the thematic working groups of the NSC. In addition to this, County Mayor Tom-Christer Nilsen has been the vice president of the organisation since June 2012. This spring, political and/or administrative repre-sentatives from Hordaland have participated in meetings in all the five thematic groups. One of these meetings have been held in Hordaland as Cllr Helge Andr Njaastad who takes part in the Culture and Tourism group, but who is also the Mayor of Austevoll, invited to group to Hordaland for their winter meeting. The group had their meet-ing both in the island municipality of Austevoll and in Bergen, all in beautiful winter weather.

Introduction by Bergens commissioner for culture, Gunnar Bakke an the Norwegian Seafood Centre in Bergen General Assembly A better place to live was the title of this years joint annual conference between the North Sea Region Programme and the North Sea Commis-sion. Fitting to the title, the conference was held on idyllic Tylsand beach outside of Halmstad in the Swedish region of Halland on 11th and 12th of June. As the current programme period is coming to an end, the focus was not only on learning from the experience of existing projects, but also on discuss-ing the objectives of the programme to come.

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The Annual Business Meeting of the North Sea Commission was held on the 13th of June. The two main points on the agenda was the definition of the terms of an action plan following up the objectives of the strategy document North Sea Region 2020, as well as following up the organisational survey that has been carried out this spring. As a result of the latter, two of the thematic groups are changing their names (and somewhat their focus); Sustain-able Development will become Energy and Cli-mate Change and Innovation and Education will become Economic Development. There were also some changes to the organisational charter, but this raised minimal discussion, as they were tech-nical changes in order to bring the charter more in line with the rest of the CPMR.

The Regional Council for Western Norway The Regional Council for Western Norway is an organisation consisting of four County Councils on the west coast of Norway: Mre og Romsdal, Sogn og Fjordane, Hordaland and Rogaland. The council consists of five politicians elected from each of the county councils. The leadership alternates between the member counties, and Sogn og Fjordane is heading the organisation in 2013. The focus areas of the council are transport, business development, culture and international affairs. Administrative groups have been established for these topic are-as. More The international working group This spring, the international group has had four meetings (including one video conference) and has presented two cases to the council; coordination of the international activities of the four member coun-ties and a proposal for a position paper regarding in particular the funding of the next programming pe-riod of the Interreg programme

Projects Interreg IV projects Interreg is the European programmes for interregional cooperation, partly financed by European Un-ion. Hordaland is eligible for participation in the following programs; Interreg IV B: The North Sea Region Program, Northern Periphery Program and the Baltic Sea Program and Interreg IV C; Interre-gional Cooperation

Interreg IVB North Sea Region Programme

Clean North Sea Shipping By Even Husby, project manager

In CNSS, several research activities are running in parallel, heading for the forthcoming joint partner-ship meeting in September 2013. The main focus is on the development of scenarios for air emission, on incentive schemes and on technologies for re-duction of air emission. How Onshore Power Supply is utilised within the North Sea has been the focus of a survey during the spring of 2013 and the results are now being incorporated into a report. A draft report will be discussed at an expert meeting in August 2013.

A new activity in 2013 is an investigation of how different incentives or penalty regimes are used to assess the impact of a ship on the environment. Preliminary results will be presented and discussed in September. A study of LNG as fuel for shipping has also result-ed in a report (in print June 2013). Two surveys related to emission factors for ships and fuel consumption of ships in harbours has been conducted. The results will serve as input for updated harbour emission inventories for the big

harbours in the North Sea region. A video providing a general over-view of CNSS was ready in June and can be found at the website www.cnss.no.

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Craft International By Terje Inderhaug, project manager

Craft International is a continuation of the develop-ment work undertaken since 2008 by the cono-muse Northern Europe project, joining partners from Norway, Sweden, Greenland, Iceland, Faroe Islands, Ireland, Northern Ireland and Canada. Hordaland County Council is the lead partner and the project administration is maintained by the De-partment of Culture and Sports. The Craft International project is going from strength to strength in all the partner regions involved. Our latest artisan member, Kittat in Nuuk, Green-land was launched on 29th of May. Kittat is one of the very few businesses anywhere that has the skills to sew an Innuit national costume with all the superb beading and needlework.

Our project steering group chairman Mr. Helge Andre Njaastad from Hordaland County Council at the official opening together with the vice-mayor of Nuuk, Mrs. Malene Lynge The latest official opening of an Economuse in Hordaland was at Syse fruit and apple farm in Ulvik on 15th of May. 1st of July Hillesvg Wool spinnery in Linds mu-nicipality will open for visitors for the summer sea-son, however, the official opening will be not be until the autumn. There are two more Econo-muses to come in Norway before the end of 2013. By now the conomuse North Atlantic Network has 17 member artisans in Europe and a further 9 in Quebec in Canada, and there are 13 more Economusee to come during the autumn. The new project website and facebook page at www.economusee.eu speaks volumes about the range of businesses and their expertise. Best of all, later this summer, the artisans will be offering their great quality products for sale over the project website.

Interreg ICV Interregional cooperation

Eco Regions By Torill Monstad, project manager

The Eco Regions project The Eco regions project supports eco-innovation and green technologies, especially linked to small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The main pur-pose of the project is to learn from good practices in our partner regions, and stimulate SMEs to a greener production. There are in total 11 partners, from various regions in countries like Finland, Ger-many, France, Sweden, Hungary, Italy, Malta and Belgium, together with Hordaland. More Site visits in the Eco Regions project The first half of 2013 has been the most active year in the Eco Regions project. The project started in the beginning of 2012, with the planning of transfer of knowledge. The actual site visits, where all the partners learn from each other have taken place during the first 6 months of this year. In March and April two delegations from Hordaland visited Thr-ingen to learn about the Energy Efficiency Network and Portaferm. In May three delegations from Sweden and Germany visited Hordaland to learn about our Climate Action Plan.

Groups from Sweden and Germany visiting Hordaland in March Energy Efficiency Network In March a small delegation from Hordaland partic-ipated in a site visit to Thringen. The Energy Effi-ciency Network Thuringia supports enterprises in reducing their energy consumption and their CO2 emissions. A network of 10-15 enterprises monitors their energy consumption and gets support in de-tecting and improving their energy efficiency. Since the network activities include best-practice ex-change, various methods for improvement will be discussed and presented in the network. This pro-ject is similar to a project that can be found in the Climate Action Plan, and our newfound knowledge will be very useful when implementing our project.


Portaferm In April a delegation from Hordaland visited Thr-ingen to learn about the biogas project Portaferm. Farms have a very high energy and electricity de-mand, which they presently cover by buying ener-gy. But farms also produce organic waste with a high energy potential. The Portaferm biogas plant was developed for the conversion of the agricultural waste into energy, electricity and heat. The pro-duced electricity could either be fed in the grid or used decentralized for one or more households. The produced heat will mostly be used decentral-ized. The visit was very interesting, but even in Germany it is clear that biogas can be a challenge. Climate Action Program The Climate Action Plan is Hordalands contribution to the Eco Regions project. In May three delegations from Jmtland, Sweden and Bamberg and Thringen, Germany visited Hordaland to learn about our Climate Action Plan. One of the most important elements in the Climate Action Plan is that it involves private and public enterprises and organisations throughout the coun-ty.

There is a clear operational approach to the pro-gram in regards to involving partners who will all be connected to individually described sub projects within various fields. The delegations were very impressed with the way HCC has managed to op-erationalize big climate goals, into more managea-ble projects and measures. And especially the way the politicians are active contributors to the work

Environmental adviser in Hordaland, Per Svae, gives an in-truduction to the charging station for electric cars at Fjsanger

Youth and internationalisation

By Kirsten Ese, Leonardo da Vinci coordinator in Hordaland Hordaland County Council is a regional contact point for the Leonardo da Vinci-programme. As one of five counties in Norway, Hordaland was certified in 2009 because of a high volume and good quality of Leonardo-projects over a number of years. Hordaland County Council is among the most ac-tive users of the Leonardo da Vinci-programme in Norway and was allotted more than NOK 3 million for 2013. This means that Hordaland is the second largest user of the programme in 2013. The main target groups are students and appren-tices in vocational education and during the spring of 2013 about 100 students and apprentices from Hordaland had placements in European companies and institutions. Most of the students have place-ments of 3-4 weeks, and the apprentices for 4 13 weeks. By taking part in the programme, the partic-ipants gain new international competence and skills, both professional-, personal-, cultural-, and language skills.

Students from Sandsli videregende on placement as chefs and waiters at a hotel in Trim, Ireland (Photo: Sandsli vgs) The target countries have been Lithuania, Germa-ny, Slovenia, Denmark, Sweden, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, UK, and the distribution of trades varies from restaurants, electronics, social care, youth work, robotics, animal care and transport and logistics. More

Leonardo da Vinci Program

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Comenius Regio

"Assessment for learning" By Maria S. Olsen, Bjrgvin videregende The Comenius Regio partnership project "Assess-ment for learning" is coordinated by Hordaland County Council and the region of Murcia, Spain. The local partners are the University of Bergen and the University of Murcia, in addition to the two up-per secondary schools Bjrgvin in Bergen and IES Jimenez de la Espada in Cartagena. From the 2nd to 6th of May, Spanish and Norwegian partners met at Voss to cooperate and exchange their experiences on Assessment for learning. The subjects the project group focus on are Mathemat-ics, Social Sciences, English and foreign lan-guages. From the Norwegian side Kari Smith from the Uni-versity of Bergen talked about professional devel-opment and Action Research in the classroom. Stig Solberg and Maria S. Olsen from Bjrgvin vgs showed their IPad experiment illustrating different types of feedback and Montserrat Lvs presented her action research project on oral skills and peer assessment. The group worked on the further development of the website together with Svein Olav Norenes. The Spanish participants presented their classroom practices on the topic. Their results will be present-ed in September in Spain where they already no-tice an improvement on their pupils because of techniques they have acquired through the project.

The group gathered at rural Voss for their workshop

Approaching Delinquent Behaviour at School. - is a Comenius Regio project with the Dodecanese Islands in Greece for the period 2012-2014. Horda-land County Council / Department of Education, Fyllingsdalen upper secondary school and the School Leader Association represent Hordaland. Inter-generational approach to reduce func-tional illiteracy By Marit Einen, International section The closing conference of the Comeius Regio pro-ject: Inter-generational approach to reduce func-tional illiteracy took place on 4-7 June in Ormoz, Slovenia. In this project Kvinnherad municipality in Hordaland and Ormoz have cooperated for two years in this cross sector project between health and education. The participants come from primary schools, health and care sector, public libraries and NGOs. The main focus has been the transfer of skills and competence from the older generation (such as local history and values and traditional handicrafts) to the young ones, and vice versa (with modern skills and values).

From the closing event in Ormoz Both municipalities are reporting the project to be a great success, and that it has shown the im-portance of working across sectors and genera-tions. They hope that this good practice will influ-ence how the sectors develop their services and working methods in the future. Among the concrete results of the project are enhanced reading skills, young people more interested in the health and care sector (both in terms of work as volunteers and for future choice of careers), and not at least the obvious pleasure the two generations had of cooperating in different activities in the project. There is now a strong will on both sides for further cooperation. Slovenia has prioritised the health sector within the EEA-Grant scheme and are now looking at this programme, in additions to others, as an opportunity for future cooperation.


Youth in Action Program

By Barbara Harterink, Youth in Action coordinator in Hordaland YOUTH IN ACTION is the EU programme for young people aged 13-30 and youth leaders. It promotes mobility within and beyond the EU bor-ders, intercultural dialogue and non-formal learning (learning by doing), and encourages the inclusion of all young people. A variety of activities can get EU support; like international youth exchanges, youth democracy projects, local youth initiatives and seminars for youth workers. In addition, there is a possibility for all young people aged 18-30 to work and live in one of EUs countries for one year, so-called European Voluntary Service (EVS), with all expenses covered. More Hordaland County Council has this spring carried out two EVS projects in EUs neighbour countries Ukraine and Armenia. We have also continued sending volunteers to the EU-countries Italy, Ger-many, Northern Ireland and the Netherlands. The first volunteer to Ukraine Alette Lie has been working as a volunteer at Cen-tre for European initiative in Ukraine. The project was funded by the Youth in Action program. She taught school pupils about democracy and how the different European countries are governed. Alette felt it was a very rewarding job and it was interesting to compare Norwegian and Ukrainian society, culture and daily life. Now I know what it is like to inte-grate in a new country and to work with people with a dif-ferent cul-ture. I would like to rec-ommend European Voluntary Service to all young people, says Alette. This is the first time Hordaland County Council has sendt young volunteers to EUs neigh-bour countries Ukraine and Armenia.

Grundtvig programme

The Grundtvig programme focuses on adult educa-tion. It aims to provide adults with more ways to improve their knowledge and skills, facilitate their personal development and boost their employment prospects. It enables more people to undertake learning experiences, notably in other European countries, and it helps to tackle problems associat-ed with Europes ageing population. STILL BEING ACTIVE - 50+ volunteer project Hordaland and Galicia County Councils have co-operated on the exchange of young volunteers for several years, with the support of the EU-program Youth in Action. Following up on this we started cooperating on a new age group: volunteers aged 50 years or more. In 2012 we applied for EU-support through the programme for adult education GRUNDTVIG 50+. The project named "Still being active" received funding for 12 volunteers for four weeks, six each way In Hordaland, we established a partnership with the Development Centre for nursing homes and home care, and the Volunteer Centre at Mhlenpris. In May, we received six enthusiastic Spanish volun-teers, who worked at three different nursing homes, organising activities for the elderly. In the evenings, they attended Norwegian and English language classes at the Volunteer Centre. They also partici-pated in senior dance courses and organised activi-ties for the European Neighbour Day. All the people involved were very satisfied with the project. The volunteers brought a little bit of Gali-cia/Spain into the nursing homes in Bergen, which was positive for both the elderly and the employ-ees. The volunteers increased their language skills, learned about Norwegian health care and our re-gion.

Bergens commissioner for social services, Hilde Onar-heim, together with volunteer Ana Isabel Prol Alvarez


Active High Schools There is a high level of international activity at the upper secondary schools in Hordaland. This time we give you examples from two schools that have travelled very different distances for their projects: from internationalisation at home to projects in Africa. Internationalisation at Home By Marit Mork, Bergen Handelsgymnasium Bergen Handelsgymnasium (BHG) has a long tradi-tion of internationalisation and this year is no ex-ception. BHG is currently taking part in three Co-menius projects which have given our students and teachers a wonderful opportunity to travel, experi-ence different cultures across Europe, practice their intercultural communication skills, and cooperate in enhancing their knowledge on common issues like ecology and sustainable development, using for instance E-twinning as a meeting place. We also focus on internationalisation at home. Sep-tember 26th, we celebrated the European Day of Languages with invited lecturers, an international caf and entertainment, such as Japanese and Chinese choir song. Our students celebrated Chi-nese New Year, with singing, an arts and craft ex-hibition and food. A traditional Chinese fan dance was also presented at the Christmas show and some of our students entered the China Bridge Competition. For the first time our school participated in Europe-an Youth Parliament (EUP), a program where stu-dents meet to discuss central political topics and learn about political processes in a European framework. Four students were selected to repre-sent Norway at the International Session in Munich. This has been a very interesting year and we hope the next one will be equally exciting.

Langhaugen wins trip to Tanzania By Merete Hofslett, teacher, Langhaugen vgs The knowledge of fair distribution of wealth has become more important (Minister of Development, Heikki Holms). NORAD, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, wishes to increase the populations competence level on development aid. The compe-tition National Championship in development aid 2012 was part of this effort, and class 2MM at Langhaugen upper secondary school was declared winners by a clear margin. The prize was a round trip in Tanzania (Arusha, Zanzibar, Dar es Salaam) and the purpose was to give the pupils an insight into development projects with a special focus on energy. One of the high-lights was the conference in Dar es Salaam on 19th of March 2013 titled A Thematic Consultation on Energy. The pupils gave speeches that had been prepared in close cooperation with Tanzanian youth. The class also got an opportunity to discuss with both the Minister of Development, Heikki Holms and Minister of Education, Kristin Hal-vorsen during two receptions at the Norwegian embassy. The pupils themselves summed up their journey in this way; Africa is not at all like we in the Nordic countries picture it, and nothing like what the media is showing us. The expectations that we had to the poor and dangerous Africa has totally changed. Tanzania is now the land with hopes for the future. I think that we now safely can say that we are all left with a wish to return to the most exciting conti-nent in the world. Thank you for this opportunity, Norad!


West Norway Office in Brussels By West Norway Office This year the West Norway Office (WNO) in Brus-sels celebrates its 10-year anniversary. The office has doubled the number of members since the start. WNOs members include county councils, municipalities and other actors from the West Nor-way region. Ten years after its creation, the office continues to be a liaison between its members in West Norway and European actors in Brussels. An important task for the WNO is to provide infor-mation from the EU that is of particular interest to the members and to act as a contact point and meeting place for regional cooperation in Europe. Other tasks are to increase the knowledge on EU-Norway relations with a special focus on program knowledge and to promote our region and mem-bers as potential partners in EU projects. The 10-year anniversary of the West Norway Office was celebrated on 14th of June in Brussels. The Mayor of Hordaland County Council, Mr. Tom-Christer Nilsen participated at the event alongside other representatives of the WNO board, member organisations as well as a number of guests from Brussels. The anniversary seminar focused on the past, present and future of the EU both in terms of national and regional interests. Hans Martens from the think tank EPC and Enrico Mayrhofer from the CPMR were the keynote speakers. During the anniversary reception the Norwegian Ambassador to the EU Mr Atle Leikvoll, emphasized the im-portance of the regional offices in his speech and thanked for the excellent cooperation.

Director Merete Mikkelsen thanks present and former staff members during the anniversary in Brussels Several groups from Hordaland have visited the office this spring. These visiting groups are exam-ples of the services WNO are providing to increase the knowledge about EU/EEA matters and its impli-cations for the region. Our visitors have attended lectures on different themes by a variety of Norwe-

gian and European actors in Brussels, including WNO. In March, the Committee for transport in Hordaland County Council came to Brussels, and in April, the Regional Business forum in Hordaland visited the office. The members of the Forum are key persons for the economic development in Hordaland County as they are leading important organisations in the region. It was a very inspiring visit with a lot of useful exchange between the par-ticipants and the office. In March, Ms. Gudrun Mathisen who is head of the Section for Climate and Natural resources in Hordaland County Council, spent one week in WNO on secondment. With WNO as the base for her work she met with a number of Norwegian and European officials working within her specific field of interest - and especially in the field of ener-gy. The first EU-Norway conference on energy was also organised during her stay. WNO is already preparing for this years Open Days conference, which will take place in October 2013. West-Norway is part of the regional partner-ship Smart partnerships for jobs and growth, to-gether with ten other European regional offices. Our joint Open Days seminars will focus on youth employment and transition and transformation in industrial activity. For more information, you can see our homepage and facebook page.

The European parliament (Photo: Anita Fjellheim/Dianne Kilvr, Dept. of Organisation)

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Other activities Regional business council to Brussels By Arthur Arnesen, Department of Regional Devel-opment On 14th and 15th of March, Regional Business Fo-rum (RNF) in Hordaland was in Brussels in order to learn more about EUs policies in areas that are of particular interest to our region, about ESAs role and about how national and regional interest organ-isations works towards the EU. Apart from an internal meeting of the RNF, there were introductions from the West Norway Office in Brussels , the Norwegian municipalities organisa-tions (KS) office in Brussels, NHOs Brussels of-fice and ESA who all gave introductions to the way they work for Norwegian interests (whether they be national, regional/local or sectorial) towards the EU. Or in the case of ESA, to ensure that the EU regu-lation on the internal market is followed also in the EEA countries. On a more specific note, there were introductions to EFTAs role and their work with entrepreneurship and the internal market, on EUs energy policy and how it affects Statoil and the framework for the Norwegian energy policy and on EUs coming programme for research and innova-tion Horizon 2020. There was even time for a visit to the European parliament The feedback from the participants was that the program, the content and the relevance for the group were all very good and that the level of com-petence on the speakers was very high. Some of them also pointed to the added-value that trips such as this contributes to cement a group such as RNF as a partnership.

The group gathered for introductions at the West Norway Office (Photo: WNO)

Delegation to the Bocuse dOr in Lyon County Mayor Tom-Christer Nilsen was heading a large crowd from Western Norway when the re-gional gold hope, and the current European cham-pion, chef rjan Johannessen tried to win the culi-nary championship Bocuse dOr in Lyon in January 2013. Johannessen comes from the municipality of Aus-tevoll in the southern part of Hordaland, where his family runs the guesthouse and restaurant Bekkjar-vik Gjesgiveri, and the Council for Southern Horda-land had organised for a big number of people to be present for the championship. This included the mayors of the five municipalities in the region; Fit-jar, Stord, Bmlo, Sveio and Austevoll.

From left: the mayors of Fitjar, Stord, Bmlo, the county mayor, Mayors of Austevoll and Sveio (Photo: Terje Inderhaug) During their stay in Lyon a traditional Norwegian breakfast was hosted. This show cases Norwegian culinary traditions and gives Norwegian producers an opportunity to present their products to French restaurants and grocery stores. Even with more than 1000 Norwegians present on the arena chef Johannessen did not manage to make it to the top 3 of the championship. He did, however, secure the prize for the best fish dish. More Agreement signed on music coopera-tion with China On January 11th 2012, County Mayor Tom-Christer Nilsen and director of Concerts Norway (Rikskonsertene) Turid Birkeland signed an agree-ment committing the two institutions to cooperate in regards to their music projects with China.

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This agreement will allow musicians from China to come to Hordaland and tour schools with traditional Chinese music as part of the Cultural Rucksack programme. Four musicians from a culture school in Beijing has already been selected to tour our schools this coming fall and the hope is that this visit will be exchanged with musicians from Horda-land playing in China next year. This is not the first time that Hordaland County Council and Concerts Norway cooperate on China. Artists from our region have on several occasions been invited by Concerts Norway to be part of the Norwegian contribution to the Shanghai Interna-tional Arts Festival. More

Director of Concerts Norway, Turid Birkeland and County Mayor Tom-Christer Nilsen signs the agreement (Photo: Bjarte Brask Eriksen) Principals from Hordaland visits China Chinese language education is increasingly popular in the Bergen area where Chinese is currently taught at primary schools, upper secondary schools and at university level. Bergen is also the seat of Norways only Confucius Institute. Both of these facts served as part of the background when prin-cipals from Hordaland County Council, together with principals from Mre og Romsdal County Council and the city of Bergen went on a ten-day study trip to China in April. The study trip was or-ganised after an invitation from Hanban the Chi-nese Ministry of Educations department for educa-tion abroad and responsible for the Confucius Insti-tutes worldwide. The delegation visited both Beijing and Dalian. The latter city is twinned with Bergen. The programme included visits to both high schools and universities and in Beijing, the group stayed at the prestigious Beijing Sports University, which has close connec-tions with the Confucius Institute in Bergen. During these visits, they experienced both regular teaching situations as well as classes where foreign stu-dents were taught Chinese. There is a clear ambi-tion from the Chinese authorities to see an increas-

ing number of foreign students learning the Chi-nese language both in china and abroad. More

The group from Hordaland met with Deputy Director of Beijing Sports University, where they stayed during the visit (Photo: Per Morten Bordbotten) Learning about light rail art from Nice By Tone S. Haugland, Dept. of Culture The art project connected to the light rail in Nice is a model project in the European context. In the first construction phase of the light rail in Nice, 1 % of the construction cost was allocated to art. This has resulted in 13 works of art along the rail line. Relat-ed to this they have also published a wonderful book about the project, as well as worked out a dissemination programme that includes guided tours with the light rail every week. The art committee for the Bergen Light Rail went to Nice during the last week of April in order to learn more about this project. Dissemination, ownership and maintenance routines, in addition to the art works themselves, were the topics for the meetings with the responsible for the project in Nice. The committee in Bergen is put together of repre-sentatives from and with competence within the cultural sector, light rail construction, architecture, municipality and county council. The countys De-partment of Culture and Sports acts as the secre-tariat for this project. Two new art works will be unveiled when the newest part of the light rail line opens to the public on 21st of June.

The tramway in Nice passes in between the art work at the place Massena


Transport and Communications Com-mittee to Brussels, Utrecht and Am-sterdam By Torill Klinker, Dept. of Communication In March, a delegation, consisting of 14 members of the Transport and Communications committee and 10 staff members, spent four days in Brussels, Utrecht and Amsterdam. The delegation focused on transport-related topics such as transport policy in the EU, planning for public transport, Park & Ride-systems and transport planning at different levels of government. Financing the infrastructure, without using road-toll as in the Netherlands, was eagerly debated. So was the topic of restricted accessibility for private cars and deliveries. Further on, the delegation questioned the linking of Norwegian and EU transport-regulations related to environmental emissions, goods-regulations and road-toll amongst foreign drivers. The delegation also enjoyed a guided walk through the Utrecht Central Station, with more than 350 000 daily passengers, as well as a lovely bicycle-tour around Amsterdam.

Chair of the Committee, Gustav Bahus, tries out the city bikes in Amsterdam Both Utrecht and Amsterdam have challenges with managing local transport consisting of private transport, public transport, bicyclists and pedestri-

ans all fighting for the same limited space. The Norwegian delegation found the meeting with politi-cians and staff members in these cities very inter-esting, and the Dutch experience can easily be transmitted to Norwegian conditions. Record high participation from Horda-land at the Offshore Technology Con-ference in Houston County Mayor Tom-Christer Nilsen headed the annual delegation from the Bergen region to the worlds largest petroleum fair Offshore Technolo-gy Days, OTC, in Houston from 4th to the 10th May. This year, a record of 78 people from Hordaland (compared to 60 last year) participated in this event, which was organised by Business Region Bergen in close cooperation with the Chamber of Commerce, HOG Energy and NCE Subsea. On the programme for the delegation, were reoc-curring posts such as networking events, company visits and visits to the exhibition area. Another tradi-tional event, the breakfast seminar, which this year was hosted by the Bergen and Stavanger regions together, saw a record high number of 300 partici-pants. The seminar was titled An energy marked in radical change and provided different perspectives on several energy resources. This year the Norwegian crown prince and princess were present at the conference. Although not at any of the events organised by the Bergen region, the Royal couple took part in events such as the annual dinner hosted by the American-Norwegian Chamber of Commerce. More

Representatives from Western Norway at the Norwegian stand at the OTC exhibition (Photo: Business Region Bergen)


Public health studies in Copenhagen and Malm By Aina Haugstad, Public health coordinator Partnership for public health has been allocated five scholarships through the Leonardo da Vinci programme. From the 18th to 22nd of March, repre-sentatives from Hordaland County Council, togeth-er with the municipalities of Asky, Fjell and Kvam, as well as the Norwegian Trekking Association in Bergen, took part in a one week study trip to Co-penhagen and Malm. The programme was compact and consisted mainly of dialogue meetings where public health was dis-cussed across country borders and organisational levels. There are many parallels between the Dan-ish and the Norwegian way of organising this field, and that contributed to the learning outcome for everyone involved. During the week, we met with the WHO Healty Cities project, research environments and a par-ticular Danish effort towards innovative activity facilities. We visited projects that had come out of both public and private initiatives, as well as a larg-er project in cooperation between 9 municipalities, a bank and voluntary organisations. In Nstvedt municipality, we visited a Frisklivssentral (central for healthy life) and had some valuable exchanges of experience concerning the administrative public health work. Due to the fact that we met with such a wide variety of actors, all the organisations that participated in this had a tremendous outcome from the visit and we had many different focuses in meeting with our hosts. We gained new knowledge and made new contacts during the trip that we will definitively ben-efit from in the future.

Promoting a healthy life style, no matter what the weath-er is like! (Photo: Jarle Pedersen, Fjell municipality)

Learning about analytical approaches in Denmark By Kathrin Jacobsen, head of Analysis and Docu-mentation unit In June, the Analysis and Documentation unit from Hordaland County Council visited national and regional institutions in Denmark to learn about ana-lytical methods and tools related to common chal-lenges within regional development. At the Danish Business Authority, Department of Regional Politics in Silkeborg, the focus was on measuring the effects of projects financed by the EU structural funds to strengthen regional devel-opment and economic growth. The region of Southern Denmark was the primary stop of this visit. The head of the department for Strategy and Analysis, told the delegation about the philosophy and the model for knowledge production in the department, developed through an extensive dialogue with the customers, primarily the munici-palities. Different methods and designs were dis-cussed and how the results of these were taken into action. The last stop was the Danish Evaluation Institute in Copenhagen, conducting evaluations of programs and activities in the school system. The main focus of the visit was the efforts to reduce drop-out in upper secondary education and methods to devel-op indicators that could explain and predict drop-out at an early stage. All together, the visit has given a valuable insight into analytical approaches to challenges within regional development similar to those we face in Hordaland. In addition, the contacts made will give us the opportunity to benefit from each other expe-riences in the future as well.

Together with representatives from region Southern Denmark


A hope to develop new projects be-tween Voss and Bled Hordaland County Council encourages bilateral partnerships between municipalities in Hordaland and the European regions that we work with. One of these partnerships is between Voss in Hordaland and Bled in Slovenia, which have already signed a Letter of intent concerning cooperation within the field of tourism, entrepreneurship and education. After a rejected project application under Comenius Regio programme in 2011, their goal is now to send an application to a relevant EU programme or the EEA Grant Scheme next year. At a meeting in Bled on 7th of June both the mayor of Bled, different school leaders (from kindergarten to upper secondary education) and the heads of tourism and of international services in Bled admin-istration were present. The Regional Development Agency of Gorenjska and International Section from Hordaland County represented the supporting intermediary institutions. A main challenge that was discussed was how to enhance tourism as an inno-vative and exciting future career path. The discus-sions in Bled brought up that a strong local focus, involving and targeting the local population (from an early age), is an important factor for successful development of the sector. The tourism sector and how to develop the education and entrepreneurship related to it, has been a focus area in the talks be-tween Bled and Voss.

Internationalisation of the local health and care sectors In close cooperation with International Section, the Centre for Development of Institutional and Home Care Services in Hordaland has, for the last years, used Leonardo da Vinci placements as a tool to introduce new competence in this sector. The co-operation with this centre has been very important for the Hordalands strategy to support the health and care sectors in the municipalities to new com-petence through internationalisation. Examples of projects are representatives from health and care institutions in Voss who have been in Denmark to learn how to keep the elderly active and use their own resources (Esbjerg model); nurses from Bergen learned new methods in pallia-tive care (Liverpool care pathway) in Stockholm and preventive and safety care in Denmark. The participating institutions report that these place-ments reduce the time used for testing and the potential failure of new methods during their own implementation period. Aslaug Brnde, head of the centre in Hordaland reports that the their strategy is to send at least two persons from each municipality to these practice based placements to secure implementation of good working practices at home. The instructors experience both methods and prac-tices that can easily be implemented back home, and others that need some adjustments. An im-portant result is also new confidence and inspira-tion to innovative thinking in the sector.

Editing completed on 17th of June 2013 All photos and articles (including photos) are produced by the International section, Hordaland County Council unless where otherwise is noted.

For more information, www.hordaland.no/internasjonalt

International Section, P.O. Box 7900, 5020 Bergen, Norway

www.hordaland.no June 2013

Newsletter 01 13 korr.pdf1 Our Partner regionsCardiff,WalesOrkney Islands, ScotlandThringen,Kaunas, Lithuania1 Cooperation through internationalorganisationsProjectsYouth and internationalisationWest Norway Office in Brussels

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hordaland class

maritime schools

educational cooperation

schools bilateral links

brussels offi ce

several schools

france visit

international projects