Entitled Europe Days 2012, the festival's inspiring performances, movies and information activities are designed to be a cross-cultural bridge with Europe.

It will be highlighted by a performance of Notos Quartet from Germany on May 9-10 and followed by concerts of British a-cappella group Black Voices on May 21 and French electronic rock band Success on May 30.

European literature will be featured at the National Library in Hanoi, in a programme organised by the European Union National Institutes for Culture. Books from Italy, Spain, Belgium, Germany, the UK, Denmark and Poland which have been newly translated into Vietnamese will be presented.

An art exhibition of river landscapes from Southeast Asia will be held at Cactus Contemporary Art, in HCM City from May 13-26. Seventeen artists from Southeast Asia countries will reflect the ecological, socio-economic and cultural changes occuring along rivers in their region.

The EuroCham Food Festival will be held at the National Library, 31 Trang Thi, Ha Noi, on May 26 at 6pm.

The third edition of a comics festival will be co-organised by the Kim Dong Publishing House and Wallonie – Bruxelles from June 1-10 in Hanoi. Comic book author Jean Claude Servais will be a guest.

Meanwhile, two events will be held to improve understanding between Europeans and Vietnamese, including EU ambassadors’ talk with Vietnamese students about Europe in seminars Reaching out to Youth in HCM City and the central province of Binh Dinh on May 16 and 17, respectively.

Students from universities nationwide will have a chance to express their knowledge of the EU in a contest entitled “Europe is with You”. Three winners will receive return air tickets to Europe.

Seminars on EU-Vietnam Trade Relations will take place in Binh Dinh and HCM City on May 16 and 18, respectively.

A cultural roundtable discussion on Can Women Perform Better Leadership in Politics will be held on May 22 and 29 in Ha Noi and HCM City.

The European Film Festival will take place in the central city of Da Nang for the first time since it became a permanent event of both Hanoi and HCM City 12 years ago.

The overall festival celebrates Europe Day, on May 9, when the Schuman Declaration – the foundation for the beginning of what is the European Union today – was made in 1950.