Generation €uro Students' Award: Team from Amato Lusitano Secondary School (Castelo Branco) wins final

The team 'EuroLusitanos' from Amato Lusitano Secondary School (Castelo Branco) won the Portuguese Generation €uro Students' Award today. The final took place in Banco de Portugal, Lisbon.

Gonçalo Marques, José Ferreira, Mariana Resende, Marisa Natário and their teacher Maria Laurinda Sanches, from Amato Lusitano Secondary School, were awarded first prize, which they received from the Governor of Banco de Portugal, Carlos da Silva Costa, and will go to Frankfurt am Main (Germany) in April to take part in the European prize-giving ceremony.

The Generation €uro Students' Award is the first competition for schools on monetary policy organised by the European Central Bank and the Eurosystem national central banks. This initiative aims to raise awareness among secondary school students about the importance of the euro’s monetary policy and of price stability.

The following teams took part in the final:

EuroLusitanos – Amato Lusitano Secondary School (Castelo Branco) – 1st place
Euro$tars – D. Sancho II Secondary School (Elvas) – 2nd place
Bonds…€uroBonds! – S. Lourenço Secondary School (Portalegre) – 3rd place
ESAGeração – Almeida Garrett Secondary School (Vila Nova de Gaia) – 4th place
Wild Cats - Padre José Augusto da Fonseca Primary and Secondary School (Aguiar da Beira) – 5th place

Jury

The jury for the final was chaired by the Vice-Governor of Banco de Portugal, José Berberan Ramalho, and comprised other members of staff of Banco de Portugal, the editor of Special Information Programmes of SIC/SIC Notícias, Luís Ferreira Lopes, and the economics editor of Lusa, Vítor Costa.

Competition rounds

In October 2013, Banco de Portugal invited Portugal's secondary schools to take part in the Portuguese Generation €uro Students' Award. In the first round of the competition, students answered a questionnaire on the euro's monetary policy as a team. In total, 93 teams from 39 Portuguese schools participated in this round.

The teams with the highest marks were invited to write an essay, in which they had to predict the monetary policy decision of February 2014 by the Governing Council of the European Central Bank, giving relevant arguments.

Of the 21 teams invited to the second round of the competition, 15 submitted essays. The five best were chosen for the competition final, where they defended their arguments in front of the jury.