On 9 February 2020, secondary school pupils from the Kleve district will be discussing questions on the topic ‘Who owns the town?’ at Kleve Town Hall, at the invitation of the Faculty of Technology and Bionics. The Mayor of Kleve, Sonja Northing, has agreed to act as patron of the Youth Parliament.
Prior to this, the young people, aged between 15 and 18, will have two days to prepare thoroughly for this debate alongside experts. For the topic ‘The City as a Living Lab’, they will be guided by Professor Dr Rolf Becker, Professor of Physics specialising in sensor technology and mechatronics at Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences. For the topic ‘How do we want to live?’, Christine Behrens, architect and managing director of Klever Reppco Architekten GmbH, has been brought on board. The topic ‘Smart City – the connected city’ is supervised by Professor Dr Andy Stamm, Professor of Electronics and Embedded Systems at Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences. All topics are also of local relevance. However, participants are free to choose which aspect they wish to focus on in their debate.
The young people will work on their respective topics in three groups. The aim is to draft a resolution to be discussed and adopted during the concluding parliamentary debate. The debate will begin on 9 February 2020 at 10.30 am in the main council chamber, following a welcome address by the Mayor of Kleve. The resolutions will be presented to the Deputy Mayor of Kleve at 2.00 pm. Anyone interested is warmly invited to attend the debate.
