Kobe University Jean-Monnet CoE held a mini-symposium on Thursday, 23 December, 2021 for 320 first-year students of Hyogo Senior High School. At the mini-symposium, Professor SAKAI Kazunari of the Graduate School of Intercultural Studies gave a lecture on "Linguistic and Cultural Diversity in the EU", and Professor YOSHII Masahiko of the Graduate School of Economics gave a lecture on "Environmental and SDGs Policies in the EU".

Professor Sakai's lecture first mentioned that the EU treats its 24 official languages on an equal footing and the EU adopts a principle respecting the culture and identity of each member country. He also noted that the EU adopts policies to make EU citizens learn multiple languages. Next, he mentioned the minority language issues, saying the EU gives an effort to preserve such regional and minority languages. Finally, he added future tasks of how the EU should treat English and Turkish, taking into account Brexit and Cyprus issues. His messages were that it is necessary for Japanese high school students to study multiple languages other than English as global human resources, and that consideration for minorities is important.

Professor Yoshii began his lecture from the introduction of the EU, mentioning Article 3 of the EU Treaty and Volume 10 of the EU Functioning Treaty are the grounds for the EU common environment policy. The EU environmental policy dated back to pollution controls in the 1960s and 1970s, and has shifted its concerns to climate change issues after the 2002 Kyoto Protocol. The EU developed the 20-20-20 strategy in 2008 and the Europe 2020 in 2010 to handle the climate change issues in the EU, and played a leading role in the climate change negotiations. The current von der Leyen administration prioritizes the European Green Deal and digitalization, and formulates the NextGenerationEU, including the just transition mechanism which will give assistances to industries and people suffering from disadvantages from the green deal.

After the lecture, a high school student gave thanks words, and Professor Yoshii gave closing remarks, mentioning the importance to learn and compare situations of other countries, including the EU, when considering issues in Japan.

The questionnaire shows that more than 80% of the participants felt that the lectures were satisfactory and they may utilize this experience when they continue further studying SDGs.