The locality of San Lawrenz has hosted one of the largest groups of youths under the European Union project "Youth".

During this past week, San Lawrenz was the centre of a particular and distinct European Kitchen. The participating youths prepared and served their companions the particular dish that characterises their particular region.

Every evening a group prepared the meal and shared it with their companions. Besides the meal, each group gave a lively presentation as an introduction of their country. Among others, polenta was served by youths coming from the Veneto region, meat balls from Sweden and sangria from Spain.

The youths of San Lawrenz also served their new friends a very good and genuine meal. In the village square, they presented the typical minestra Lawrenzjana (vegetable soup). But it wasn?t easy for them to prepare it as they wished to involve the whole community of San Lawrenz, so all the ingredients for this minestra were collected from the residents of San Lawrenz from their homes.

It was a week which put the whole locality and its residents into a frenzy of activity. A large number of locals had made themselves readily available to make these 60 youths feel at home. In a statement, the San Lawrenz local council praised the youths, who actively participated in this project, for living and expressing to foreigners their particular village identity.

Asked to comment on this experience, Mayor Noel Formosa replied that such projects are the real and factual proof of the interpersonal benefits of EU membership.

"Such projects leave a strong imprint on the educative sphere of our community. Moreover, the financial aspect is surely not negligible. Sums of money were spent in our locality, to the benefit of our villagers. But most importantly, this event gave a cultural stimulus to our youths, upholding in each one of them a sense of solidarity and civic unity," he said.