Europe Quiz Champions Awarded by Top EU and Turkish Officials

At a special award ceremony held in Ankara, the winners of the Europe Quiz 2008 received their prizes from the Turkish Minister of Education Hüseyin Çelik, European Commissioner for Enlargement Olli Rehn and EC Ambassador to Turkey Marc Pierini.

Istanbul’s Şehremini Anadolu High School, a public school from the district of Fatih, won this year’s Europe Quiz that mobilized thousands of students across Turkey. Izmir 60. Yıl Anadolu High School won the second and Denizli Erbakır Science High School won the third prize in the competition.

“There is not a single winner in this contest but fifteen,” Olli Rehn, the European Commissioner for Enlargement, told the city champions of the fifteen cities that participated in the Quiz.

“I hope that there will be, among you, future members of the European Commission,” he added in his speech at the Award Ceremony at Ankara Dedeman Hotel.

Both Hüseyin Çelik, the Minister of National Education, and Ambassador Marc Pierini, the Head of the European Commission Delegation to Turkey, congratulated the efforts of the students in answering tough questions on the European Union (EU), its history, institutions, geography, culture and on Turkish-EU relations.

The winners of the first prize have been awarded with a trip to Brussels and Berlin this summer, while other runner-ups have received cameras, digital music players and sets of books.

The quiz was organised jointly by the Ministry of Education, the Delegation of the European Commission to Turkey and the EU Information Network, which consists of EU Information Centres in Ankara and Istanbul, and EU Information Relays in Adana, Antalya, Bursa, Denizli, Diyarbakır, Edirne, Gaziantep, İzmir, Kayseri, Mersin, Trabzon, Samsun and Van.