The European Parliament of Young Diplomats 2019

Since the beginning of the 2019–2020 school year, our team has organised and delivered a series of one-day projects held at schools across the country. The programme was truly packed.

Each project day began with an introduction to the Young Diplomats Association and our activities. We then moved on to an activity called the opinion scale. Participants were given thought-provoking questions to which they could only answer yes or no. “Yes” was placed on one side of the classroom and “No” on the other. Students then explained the reasons behind their answers. The questions touched on issues such as the adoption of the euro or the possibility of influencing the EU.

Next came a pantomime exercise. Participants were asked to think creatively and show, without using their voices, how they imagined Europe without the European Union.

After a short break, there followed a lecture on the EU as an institution. Here, participants either learned new factual information about the EU or refreshed their existing knowledge, and gained insight into the principles behind how its institutions function – enriched by several interesting facts.

Following the lecture, participants were given a brief overview of the rules of procedure before taking part in a two-hour simulation of a European Parliament session. Prior to each event, they selected the agenda for debate through an online questionnaire and received a briefing with key information on their chosen topic, ensuring that everyone was well prepared and the discussion as realistic as possible.

After the session, participants engaged in a discussion with a decision-maker. In most cases, this was a current or former Member of the European Parliament. Our guests included Dr Olga Sehnalová, Jiří Pospíšil, Luděk Niedermayer, and Pavel Telička. We also welcomed Jaroslav Bžoch, Member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic. The discussion gave students the opportunity to ask any questions they wished.

The day ended with the announcement of the best delegates, who received valuable prizes for their active participation, as well as an evaluation of the entire project. The goal of the project was to bring the workings of the European Union closer to secondary school students, to stimulate their interest in European politics, and above all to encourage greater awareness of the everyday world around them.

We extend our sincere thanks to the Erasmus+ programme as well as to other partners and all our honoured guests for their generous support of the project.