EUROPEAN YOUTH PARLIAMENT

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Forging Europe is without doubt a great task, ever more complex and far reaching, which will demand the active participation and creative ability of several generations. The aim of the European Youth Parliament is to associate young people with this enterprise, from the last two years of Secondary School onwards.

STRUCTURE

The European Youth Parliament (EYP) is an independent, non-profitmaking, non-political, educational organisation, founded in 1987 in Fontainebleau. The EYP moved to the United Kingdom in 1991 and the international head office is now in Oxford.

Since September 1992, the EYP has been part of the Fontainebleau Youth Foundation, a Charitable Trust, which was created to be the umbrella organisation for both the EYP, with its 15 national branches and the programme for universities : ECU (European Challenge for Universities). The Trust is governed by a board of trustees.

OBJECTIVES

The main objective of the EYP is to promote the European dimension in education and to give students in the 16-22 age group the opportunity to participate in a practical, positive learning experience. The EYP aims to provide an educational project which is suited to the special needs of future European citizens who have to be aware of the thoughts and characteristics of other nations, respect their differences, learn to work together, master two or three languages and understand the causes of international conflict.

The EYP constitutes a forum in which the young people of Europe can express their own opinions, without any political connotations and without reverting to role play. Students are encouraged to take an interest in current affairs and the democratic process, practise independent thinking and take personal initiatives.

SESSIONS

The EYP organises 2 or 3 international 9-day sessions a year, which are held each time in a different European country and involve the EU-member states as well as a minimum of 4 observer-countries, bringing 250-300 pupils/students and teachers/tutors from different nationalities.

PROGRAMME

The session programme is divided in two parts :

• Team building : one or two days of communication exercises with qualified instructors from 9 different countries to allow progressive constitution of a homogenous group
• Parlementary session : three days discussion in committees, respecting parliamentary procedure, to reach a consensus opinion on one resolution. The resulting resolutions are debated and voted on during a two-day General Assembly. Adopted resolutions are presented to the European parliament.

BUGDET

The organisation has a yearly budget of £ 400 000, which is partly funded by a grant from the European Parliament through the EC Commission (£30/student, which constitutes 8% of costs and has to be renegotiated every year); private and local government sponsoring (72%) and school/student participation (20%).

CONDITIONS FOR PARTICIPATION

The EYP is open to all secondary schools in the European Community. Headteachers have to agree to provide a delegation of 10 students from the last 2 years of secondary education accompanied by a teacher and allow for teacher time to prepare the delegation on 10 different European topics (politics, education, human rights, economy, agriculture, etc.). Working languages are English and French. Delegations are selected during a national EYP event where students show their knowledge of the issue they have studied, their motivation, open-mindedness, communication skills, ability to co-operate and language attainment. Each year a national jury decides on the two teams which will represent the country at the biannual international European Youth Parliament sessions. Observer delegations from countries outside the EU, are invited to participate on a rota basis.