Brexit Statement

In 2008 Caravan was set up by 6 European circus schools sharing the common objective to promote circus practices in youth education across Europe. Since then, the network and many of our projects have been generously supported by the EU programme Erasmus+. We therefore have a strong belief in the power of the Europe to create and support brilliant circus projects.

Now in 2020 we are a truly international network, gathering 35 members across the world including Spain, Italy, Slovenia, United Kingdom, Ethiopia, Germany, Israel, Sweden, Czech Republic, Belgium, Ireland, Romania, Finland, Switzerland, Guadeloupe, Russia, Afghanistan, Luxembourg, Turkey, South Africa and Palestine.

It’s through international collaborations and exchanges that we’ve learnt the most from our peers and strengthened our knowledge in working with young people and socially disadvantaged people, discovered the most wonderful things about other cultures, and had the most fun!

A referendum took place in the UK in June 2016, 52% of those who voted in the referendum supported Brexit (British exit from the European Union). The United Kingdom is leaving the EU on 31 January 2020.

European funding supports much of our mobility projects, and it isn’t clear at the moment if our current and future UK-based members will still be able to participate. What is clear to us though is that post-Brexit we will endeavour to maintain a strong relationship with our UK members, including The Roundhouse and Belfast Community School (a founding member of our network and longstanding supporter of youth circus).

We still also strive to sustain and build new connections with the United Kingdom after their exit from the EU.

The issues surrounding Brexit aren’t just a UK problem, across Europe political tensions are rising. It is more important than ever to stick together and build international connections and collaborations. From the start Caravan has stood for international collaboration, and we won’t stop that now.