New name needed for GMES: Commission looks to students for inspiration
The European Commission has launched a competition, calling on Europe's youth to help it find a catchier and more memorable name for the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) system. The contest will be open to students from all of the 25 EU members States, as well as from Norway and Switzerland, who are currently in the last two years of secondary school. They will be asked to put on their creative hats and come up with a suitable name for the programme, which is responsible for providing information necessary to monitor and forecast environmental issues such as floods, forest fires, or earthquakes. The winners of the competition will be treated to a hot-air balloon trip over their home region. 'The acronym GMES does not do justice to this ambitious earth monitoring project,' said Günter Verheugen, EU Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry: 'I hope that Europe's youth will be able to come up with a more inspiring name. The race is on.' With the support of the Committee of the Regions (CoR), invitations to participate were sent to a large number of schools in Europe, inviting them to register by 30 June 2006. Students will then have until 31 October to send in their entry. 'The Committee of the Regions is very pleased to support this project and I hope that as many schools as possible take part in the contest. The GMES could have an enormously beneficial effect on the future of the planet and the security of our citizens,' said President of the CoR, Michel Delebarre. The winning name will be selected in December 2006, and then publicly announced in early 2007.