The Secretary General of the Congress, Andreas KIEFER, participated in the "Peace light" ceremony at the Council of Europe on 10 December 2018 in Strasbourg, France. The flame, brought from Bethlehem, is a symbol of peace and fraternity. It is passed by hand throughout Europe and has been handed over by the government of the Land of Oberösterreich (Upper Austria) to the European institutions and the city of Strasbourg for the last 22 years. This year, the Secretary General of the Congress received the flame from Theresa ZEILINGER, a student at the Technical University of Steyr, Upper Austria, and Paul RÜBIG, Member of the European Parliament.

On this occasion, Andreas KIEFER and Verena TAYLOR, Director of the Office of the Directorate General of Programmes of the Council of Europe, met with about 100 students from Steyr. They discussed the many conventions of the Council of Europe, in particular the European Charter of Local Self-Government, the Convention on Data Protection and the Convention on Bioethics. They also presented the Council of Europe's Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture to the students and their teachers