Euroscola, travel to the heart of Europe!
Par birmane le 09/03/2020, 13:07 - Chroniques internationales - Lien permanent
The Euroscola program exists since 1990 and allows high school students from Member
States to participate in a simulation of the activities done at the European Parliament.
For one day the students put themselves in the shoes of European members of Parliament. They participate in debates, in negotiations with their classmates, they vote and adopt resolutions. Approximately 20 sessions per year take place at Strasbourg, attracting roughly 10.000 students each year.
The European Union is an economic and political alliance between 27, previously 28, European states. A lot of common policies are managed by the EU like policies about environment, agriculture, the single currency for 19 countries… The Parliament has a budgetary, a legislative and a supervisory power. The last European elections took place in 2019, during those elections 50,62% of Europeans voted, 8,01% more than in 2014, and 61% of the members of the Parliament are new. Also, 40% of the members are women and the youngest member is 21 years old.
What is happening during this day?
We arrived a
t around 8am and, after the security check, we entered the Parliament. As a reporter, I went with reporters from other states to eat breakfast. After breakfast, we went to the chamber for the schools’ presentations, the presentation of the European Union and the speeches by members of the parliament. After two and a half hours in the Chamber, we went to eat and to play the Eurogame. This game consisted in answering questions in different languages in teams of four (each from a different country).
After the game all the students went into different commissions to talk about questions like the environment, addictions, employment… As reporters, we could go into two commissions to take photos of our classmates.
After the debates in the commissions, we all came back to the Chamber to listen to the commissions’ presidents and spokespersons’ propositions. We then had to vote, for, against or neutral.
Then, the Eurogame’s final took place, with 4 teams. There were questions about agriculture, football, music… At the end, the European anthem was played, and we all left the Chamber.
I think Euroscola is a really great opportunity for a lot of students in the EU and thanks to the Parliament we can learn things about the EU, like how it works, why it is important and its usefulness in Europe and in the world. We can also have a good day, meet people from a lot of other countries and create beautiful memories.
Juliette Vannier