The award ceremony took place today at "Courtyard Marriott" Hotel. Mrs. Ketevan Tsikhelashvili, the First Deputy State Minister of Georgia for Reconciliation and Civic Equality awarded three winners - Mr. Halid Muradov, Ms. Lilit Oganesyan and Mr. Tural Naziev - with portable computers and deeds. Other participants of the contest received the deeds as an act of appreciation by State Minister’s Office.

Mrs. Ketevan Tsikhelashvili spoke about the importance of the contest, emphasizing that all papers submitted for the contest were interesting.

"The Office of the State Minister of Georgia for Reconciliation and Civic Equality launched the contest for "4 plus 1" beneficiary students who study at higher academic institutions of Georgia. These are our fellow citizens with various ethnic backgrounds. The topic of the contest was "Georgia’s European Integration and Me". We made arrangements for this event especially for this period, when we are so close to the signing of EU Association Agreement. Today the President of the European Commission Mr. Jose Manuel Barroso is paying a visit to Georgia, which is one more expression of support for Georgia’s European integration process by the side of the EU, moving towards a new phase. We wanted to hear some insights from the students how they feel about this process and how they see their European future in Georgia. So it is very important to have the youth engaged within this process", - Mrs. Ketevan Tsikhelashvili declared to journalists.

The winner students offered thanks to the Office of the State Minister of Georgia for Reconciliation and Civic Equality for the arrangement of the contest and for the opportunity to have the positions voiced.

Mr. Merab Eliashvili, the Deputy Head of Tbilisi Ivane Javakhishvili State University attended the award ceremony as well.

On May 19, the Office of the State Minister for Reconciliation and Civic Equality announced the competition for "4 plus 1" Programme’s beneficiary ethnic minority students enrolled in the universities of Georgia. The interested students were supposed to draft essays on the topic of "Georgia’s European Integration and Me". The paper was supposed to have an insight what the European integration meant for the author, how he/she understood Georgia’s European choice and what the process of European integration implied. The essay was required to reflect expectation of a student, assumptions about the perspective that derives from this process and from Georgia’s European choice and its implications for Georgia, for the representatives of ethnic minority communities and specifically for the author. The deadline for the submission of the papers expired on June 4.