Parliamentary Scholarship of German Bundestag for Georgian Youth
By Mariam Chanishvili
Thursday, November 2
On the occasion of this year's selection round for International Parliamentary Scholarship (IPS), the event was held at the Goethe-Institute in Tbilisi on October 30.
German Ambassador to Georgia Dr. Heike Peitsch, member of the German Bundestag Doris Barnett, MP Sofio Katsarava and other German embassy representatives attended the event. Barnett has been part of the German delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe since 2006, where she serves on the Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development.
The International Parliamentary Scholarship of the German Bundestag (IPS, Internationales Parlaments-Stipendium des Deutschen Bundestages) is an international parliamentary fellowship program, organized by the German Bundestag every year since 1986.
The IPS invites graduates from 28 countries and includes a five-month fellowship in the office of members of the German Parliament. Scholarship winners receive an introduction to Germany’s political, economic and cultural life via seminars held by the political foundations.
The IPS enables politically engaged college graduates from the United States and France as well as from Central and South Eastern Europe to get to know the German parliamentary system through a five-month stay in Berlin usually from March 1 through July 31.
The program aims at promoting relations between Germany and participating countries, consolidating democratic values and tolerance, deepening understanding of cultural diversity and securing peaceful coexistence in the world.
“This is a very good program for the youth,” said German Ambassador to Georgia, Heike Peitsch. “When these people come back to Georgia after this practice, they become very important people for us,” she added.
The IPS is open to well-qualified and highly motivated young people who are open to new ideas, interested in politics, and wish to play an active and responsible role in shaping the democratic future of their countries. Successful candidates will be selected based on their professional, social, language and intercultural skills by an independent selection panel set up by the German Bundestag with the involvement of Berlin universities.
