Young diplomats’ European parliament 2018

Czech students were given the opportunity to receive something really special for Christmas. Something much better than knitted socks. Something that could positively change the lives of not only them but also the lives of more than half a billion people – the European Union. Participants of our five-day student educational project “Young Diplomats’ European Parliament”, which took place from 17. to 21. of Dec. 2018 in Pilsen, had the opportunity to discuss contemporary European issues not only with each other but also with special guests and contribute their ideas to their solution.

As a part of our project, participants first became acquainted with delegates through activities developing their soft skills, such as debates in which it was necessary to defend the assigned affirmative or negative position to a pre-given current issue, furthermore, there was a pantomime about how Europe would look like without the European Union or a game of elimination or encryption.

Initially, participants were also given, for many, new information about the functioning and importance of the European Union. In addition, the delegates were introduced to the issues related to the agenda, which they later discussed, in presentations from individual members of our implementation team and thanks to the materials prepared by us.

Later, the delegates sat down at the European Parliament’s negotiating table and felt for themselves what it was like to fight for European and national interests. To understand the principles of the simulated session, a discussion about a passionate and burning agenda about the best European food took place. To everyone’s surprise, the vote shows that most delegates like polish pierogi. Later, more serious topics were discussed, including the aggression of the Russian Federation, the demolition of the EU’s internal borders and ecology – specifically green cities, and water pollution.

The program was also interspersed with discussions with special guests, in which delegates could ask anything they were interested in, refine their theoretical knowledge, and confront them with practice. Our invitation was accepted by MUDr. Michal Horáček, candidate for President of the Czech Republic, Major General Karel Randák, former Director of the Office of Foreign Relations and Information, JUDr. Jiří Pospíšil, Member of the European Parliament, and J.E Mr. Leon MARC, Ambassador of the Republic of Slovenia. We would like to thank them once again for their participation and openness to a stimulating discussion.