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European Youth Parliament

European Youth Parliament ….Sinead O Mahony and Rhiannon Finney

Over Easter I took part in the Ireland national session of the European Youth Parliament. I took part in the Munster session back in February and got selected for this session. This was my first in person session. We were in Cork city for five days and four nights. In EYP (European Youth Parliament) you pretend to be in the European Parliament for a week. You are a member of a committee and along with your committee you try to draft and pass a resolution. You have to debate and defend your resolution during the general assembly and then it is voted on. Every committee has a chairperson who is in charge of the group (Michaela was mine). I was on the REGI committee. We were looking at regional development across the EU (my first choice was FEMM which was about gender based violence, but REGI was my second).

Tuesday (Teambuilding):

We went to the MTU campus in Bishopstown at 11 in the morning. We then went in to register for the session. The registration process was very efficient and was all done in about a minute or two. We got a name card with our pronouns and our committee on it as well as our room number for the hostel.

After we registered, we went into the cafeteria area (the session didn't actually start until 1 so we had some time to kill). Rhiannon, and I , were looking for other people in our committee. We found a girl on FEMM and  talked to her for a while. 

At 1, we got called outside to the circle for some general teambuilding. The leaders of the session all introduced themselves as well as the media team and jury(the jury are there to pick people for the international session which is the next stage of EYP. There was a jury in Munster as well and they picked people for this session). We played some team building games with everyone at the session. Then we got called into our committees. 

My committee went into a classroom and we began committee team building. My committee was the biggest with 14 members (who knew so many people were into regional development!?). We did loads of name games and ice-breakers. We played a “speed dating” game. After that, we played an ethics game and it took us an hour to come to a consensus (everyone has to agree on everything in EYP, so even if one person is against something and everyone else is for it, you have to compromise with them). 


We had a well deserved coffee break and I had the one good cup of coffee that I had all week. We got to talking about what rooms we were going to be in in the hostel and I met someone who was in my room.

After the coffee break we did another ethics game and this time we spent two hours doing it. We didn't actually come to a consensus because we went overtime (I’d be lying if I said that I wasn't worried about how my committee would do during the rest of the week after failing to agree on a game).

We then went to lunch in MTU. I had chilli with rice (after looking at everyone else's food I think my dinner was the only nice thing there!). I sat with my committee at dinner.

After dinner, we went into a lecture hall for the opening ceremony. The President of the session spoke as well as the vice presidents and the head organisers. Micheal Martin also spoke to us (even though he was an hour late….). 

We got a bus into the city which is where our hostel was. We were staying at Sheila's hostel. We have the keys to our room. My room was on the third floor (which was the top floor) and it turned out to be a two bedroom room! The floor bathroom was next to my room and the showers were only down the corridor. My room had a really nice view of Cork city (probably the one with a nice view of Cork city!). My roommate and I were listening to music and we realised we had the same taste. We also played cards with each other. She was super nice and I was so happy I was sharing a room with someone who I was actually able to talk to and not just put up with. When we went to bed, I realised my duvet was under my sheet for some reason so I had to take apart my bed and then make it (I learned that I definitely need to practise making bunk beds!). My mattress was kinda hard and it took me a while to get to sleep. I was also above 203 which was a 16 bedroom. I'm sure it would have been super fun to have been in that room and have been having concerts at 3 in the morning, but being above that was not so fun!

Wednesday (Committee work):

I woke up at half 6 so that I could get a shower. You were able to rent a towel for a fiver and then if you brought it back you’d get your fever back. I didn't want to waste space in my bag with a towel if I could just get one at the hostel so I decided I was going to rent one. So I went to the reception (half an hour before we were supposed to get up) to rent my towel, but I was then told that the hostel had run out of towels but they could give me a face cloth. I didn't really have any other option so I decided I was just going to have to make do… I was expecting the shower to be freezing but it was actually not that bad. My roommate and I went down for breakfast at half 7 but there was a massive line for food. When we eventually got to sit down I'm not even joking when I say we had to get up straight away because we had to leave. We walked to the college of commerce in the city centre. 

We were supposed to do some background research on our topic before we came to the session, so in the morning we just shared what we already knew. After the first coffee break we got a talk from a woman who works for the Ireland south/east ERDF (European regional development fund-public/private organisations can apply for this fund which is controlled by the European commission if they meet the criteria). We had prepared questions to ask her about the ERDF, mainly about the process of applying for an ERDF grant. After the talk, we started preparing the first part of our resolution-the aims and because statements. The aims are pretty self explanatory, what you aim to solve. The because statements are the problems to do with your topic (for example “because there is not broadband available across the EU”). Today wasn't too hard as it isn't very hard to think of problems.

Today's evening activity was the committee dinner. REGI, FEMM and one other committee went to Nandos for our dinner. We got platters to share with our committee. This was definitely the best bonding experience our committee got and we were all definitely more close after it. 

When we went back to the hostel, my roommate and I played cards again and winded down after the day.

Thursday (Committee work):

Today was the second day of committee work. Today we were coming up with the policy proposals for our resolution. It was a lot harder than yesterday, however we worked much better as a team since we were a lot closer after our dinner together. After we had come up with policy proposals we picked our best ones and worked on rephrasing them. Having such a big committee was hard for this as everyone has to agree on what's going into the resolution and in a group of 14, someone is bound to have a different opinion to you. 

Everyone then had a talk from the women's caucus. They are a group of female politicians in Cork. Some people had prepared questions to ask them about women in politics. Honestly, I didn't really like this talk. While I can appreciate that there is a certain amount of “just deal with it” that you have to do as a woman in a male dominated field, I felt like this talk was too focused on women having to “deal with” sexism and harassment as opposed to men not being sexist and harassing woman (especially since the room was probably 50% men/50% women, it felt like a missed opportunity). 

After the talk, we went back to our room and finalised our resolution. We decided who was going to do what during the general assembly. I’m doing a position speech for another committee's resolution( the way ga works is a topic presentation, defence speech, position speech x2, response to position speeches, debate/response to debate x4, summation, voting). We are going to be the first group on Saturday.

We walked to city hall where we had our dinner. Tonight's evening activity was a table quiz on EU countries and culture. After the quiz we had deserts that the chairs had brought from their home countries.

Friday(General Assembly):

We gave back our room keys as well as our towels this morning. I had my last shower (which I swear was getting colder everyday. I'm not the only one who felt that way because one of the guys in my committee had a theory that they heated up the water at the start of the week as opposed to everyday because the showers went from lukewarm to bearable to cold to really cold!) and my last cup of coffee with the gone off milk.

Today was the first day of GA! We got an hour extra in bed this morning (I never thought that I would consider waking up at half seven during my holidays a “lie in '' but here we are!). There was a great buzz around the place in the morning, all the girls were in the bathroom getting ready together, everyone was complimenting everyone on their formal clothes and there was just a general excitement about the day ahead.

When we arrived at UCC, we were brought into a big hall. We sat with our committees. Before GA started, the president and vice presidents talked to us about international sessions of EYP (which is the next stage) and becoming a member of EYP (as in becoming a chair). We were then quickly reminded how GA works.

I feel like I should explain a few things before I talk about GA. There are four rounds of debate per resolution. Round one is only on the aims and because statements, round two and three are on the policy proposals and round four is on anything. A direct response is kind of like an instant rebuttal, it can only be about the very last thing that was said. For example if I was saying “strawberries are the best fruit”, you could direct respond to that and say “actually raspberries are the best fruit”, but if I said “strawberries are the best fruit, carrots are the best vegetable, and ham is the best meat” you couldn't mention your point about raspberries as fruit was not the last thing that I said. If a direct response placard is held up it gets priority over any “point” placards. With a direct response you can either disagree with a point or further the point. Every committee gets a maximum of one position speech, two points and two direct responses.

It was hard to get to speak during GA since my committee would only get five times maximum to speak in a debate and there were fourteen of us (and the five times max thing is only if your committee actually got picked to to speak that many times), However ,I did manage to make one or two points and one direct response. It was honestly kind of  intimidating the first time I had to talk because the two hundred people in the room would all turn their heads to look at you and someone would run across the room with a mic so that you could be heard, but after my first time talking it was actually fine.

This evening activity was Euro Concert, a talent show that both delegates, chairs, media team members and organisers took part in. Honestly, I was expecting this to be so awkward and to get second hand embarrassment from watching it, but I was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to not just be bearable but actually super good! My favourite act was one of the organisers playing sufjan stevens on the piano (but I could be biassed there as a sufjan stevens fan!).

We got a bus back to the hostel. Normally me and my roommate would just go straight to our room and listen to music and play cards together, but tonight our committee was practising for the GA on Friday so we went down to a common area to meet them. We all helped each other out in writing speeches, but probably most importantly we rehearsed our drama for the topic presentation.

Saturday(General Assembly):

Today was the last day of GA and the last day of EYP. My committee was first today. We opened with our topic presentation. Then one of the girls on my committee gave the defence speech. It was then time for the position speeches. Some of the people in my committee were sharing a room with a guy from FEMM who had a very strong negative position speech for our resolution and so when the president was calling out who would be giving position speeches we were so stressed that FEMM would be called. Luckly it wasn't and instead there were two mainly positive positions speeches. We gave our response to the positions speeches and then it was time for debates. It was very stressful passing notes to each other while everyone else was talking but we mustn't have cracked under the pressure because our committee had very strong responses to the debates. We then gave the summation speech(which was really really well done by the two guys that did it!). It was then time for voting….and our resolution passed with 105 for, 8 against, 0 abstentions and 3 absentees! We were so happy that our resolution not only passed, but was overwhelmingly passed! (also just in case you're reading this and assuming that all the resolutions passed,  should say that while most did some of them didn't so there was actually a chance that mine mightn't have).

After everyone's resolutions had been debated, we had a closing ceremony. The media team had been taking videos of us all week and they played us a video with some of the highlights of the week during the closing ceremony. We then had committee goodbyes. My committee did this thing called “funeral goodbyes” in which everyone compliments the same person at once, it was a really nice way to say goodbye to everyone. Then the entire session got together to sing “Imagine” together to close off this session of EYP.

It was actually so hard to say goodbye to the people I’d met. I know this sounds so cringy and stupid but it really didnt feel like I had only met them five days ago, they actually felt like friends. After a few cry circles, exchanging of phone numbers and promises to meet up again, it was time to say goodbye to EYP.

EYP was such an amazing experience and I would definitely love to be a delegate again next year. Not only was it a good learning experience for me, it was also just so much fun!

Rhiannon Finney…My EYP Experience

A few months after the Munster session I got an email saying I was invited to the National session. It was totally unexpected and I was over the moon. It was held in Cork, from the 19th of April to the 23rd. It was an in-person session. 

On the 19th I arrived at MTU for registration. I was given a lanyard and a bag of MTU goodies. Sinéad and I then headed to the cafeteria to meet the other delegates. 

After 3 hours of awkwardly getting to know the other delegates  it was time for the activities to begin. Everyone made their way to the courtyard for a group teambuilding exercise. We were then introduced to the officials and got into our committees. 

I was on FEMM, the committee on gender equality and women's rights. There were 11 other people on the committee. Each committee went to a different classroom for team building. We played a variety of team building games such as speed friending and human knot. We then did a conflict game, which is designed to show the strengths and weaknesses that teams have. FEMM had quite a few problems but we managed to communicate effectively and resolve them. 

The day ended with a closing ceremony with guest speaker Micheal Martin!

The second day was committee work. We had to wake up at 7, have breakfast at half past and leave the hostel at 8. I was disappointed to find that there was no bus and that we'd have to walk all the way to the College of Commerce. Because there were over 100 of us, navigating through the city was no easy task. Fair play to the organisers for keeping us all safe!

We then began sharing our thoughts and ideas. We had to come up with why gender equality was an issue, how we would solve it and what European bodies we would call on to implement changes. Every half hour or so we would have an "energiser" to keep spirits up. Some of my favourites were Zap, Black Magic and a massive game of wizard, giant, dwarf which led to 20 sixteen year olds running through the corridors of the college. 

The 3rd day was also committee work. We had to finalise our ideas and write our "because" and "clause" statements. By this stage the novelty of staying in a hostel had worn off and everyone was wrecked. I almost fell asleep multiple times! 

In the evening we went to City Hall for multicultural night. We ate food from different EU countries and did a table quiz on European history. 

The 4th day was the General Assembly. Because of a scheduling error everyone got to have a lie in. I've never been so happy to sleep in till 8! For the GA we all had to wear "business formal" clothes so we must have looked a right sight walking to UCC. 

FEMM was the second group to speak at the GA. We spoke about how 1 in 3 women are victims of gender based violence, how not all member states have ratified the Istanbul Convention and how victims of GBV face retraumatisation in the court system. We aimed to solve these issues by instructing the European Commission to provide counselling services in conjunction with court proceedings, asking the European Institute on Gender Equality to introduce a multimedia campaign to spread awareness and urging Member States to introduce workshops on consent and bystander intervention to their school curriculum. Our resolution passed with 107 votes in favour, the most out of the whole session! 

The final day was the second part of the General Assembly. We got a bus to UCC this time because everyone had heavy suitcases. It was a double decker so we had to sit with our suitcases in front of us, but it was better than walking! 

I felt sorry for the people who had to speak today because it was clear that everyone was tired and just wanted to go home. I can barely remember the last 2 debates because I was just so sleep deprived! When all of the debates were finished we had our final committee meeting. Even though I had only known these people for 5 days I had gotten really attached, and it was really hard to say goodbye. 

It was then time for the closing ceremony. After some speeches that went on for just a bit too long we all stood in a circle and sang John Lennon's Imagine. After some goodbye hugs, Sinead and I made our way to the car and definitely didn't get lost...

Overall, EYP was an amazing experience that I would recommend to everyone. While the debating and political side of it was fun, it was the people I met that made it such a worthwhile experience. While I did complain about the sleepless nights, the awful food and cold showers at half 6 in the morning it was all part of the fun. I've made some amazing friends and memories and I can't wait to do it all again next year!