(AGI) Paris, Oct 17 - Italy and France will launch a jointyouth mobility project for the performance of civilian serviceas of 2016. The decision was taken during a meeting in Paris onSaturday by French Minister for Cities, Youth and Sport,Patrick Kanner, the Minister of State for European Affairs,Harlem Desir, and by their Italian counterparts, Luigi Bobbaand Sandro Gozi. "Our two countries, determined to improvethe accessibility and mobility of young people, especially themore disadvantaged, share the intention to give a Europeanscope to civilian service," the ministers explained in a jointpress release. The pilot project is due to begin in 2016and will involve 100 Italian and French youths performingcivilian service. The exchange between the two countries willbe supported by associations operating in civilian service aswell as by the network of Italian and French twinnedmunicipalities and will mainly focus on solidarity-basedactions, the reception of refugees, environmental protectionand cultural activities. The statement continued: "Theexperimentation will enable youths from all social classes toexperience European citizenship education through mobility:special attention will be focused on particularly disadvantagedyouths. France and Italy pursue ambitious civilian servicedevelopment goals and intend to emphasise the Europeandimension. It is the first step in putting in place afull-fledged European Civilian Service programme among the EU's28 member states which might represent for future generationswhat the Erasmus programme represented for ours. Moreover, ourambition is to put in place an effective Civilian ServiceErasmus as the road towards building a heart-felt Europeancitizenship." (AGI). .