The Prague European Parliament for Youth (PEPY) is a student project that took place in Prague from 24th until 28th of February with 35 participating students from the Czech Republic and Switzerland. The students were divided into 4 committees – Committee on Education and Research, Committee on European Culture and Integration, Committee on Food and Agriculture and Committee on Defence and External Affairs. Every single committee had to create a resolution that summarised their solutions on a given topic.
On the first day we went to the Charles University in Prague where we began with some ice breaking games and then we focused on our committee work.
On Sunday, we visited the Gymnázium Na Zatlance, where we continued working on our resolutions. We also had an opportunity to join a short sightseeing trip in the evening.
Monday was almost only about the committee work and about preparations for the “Ask the Experts” event which took place in the late afternoon. My committee (Committee on Defence and External Affairs) debated with Jiří Schneider, who served as an Ambassador in Israel, was the First Deputy of Foreign Minister of the Czech Republic and the Czech Republic´s Secretary for EU Affairs. We also debated with Václav Nekvapil – the director of the international advisory company GEC Government Relations; and with Martin Vokálek – a Project Manager of the Czech Institute for European Policy EUROPEUM. The experts came to provide feedback on our resolutions, which had to be finished in the evening.
On the last day, we had to prepare our opening, attacking, defence and summarising speeches for the General Assembly (GA). The GA took place in European House in Prague. The GA consists mostly of an open debate, where all the other delegates can ask questions about the resolution of the proposing committee. After the debate, the voting procedure takes place and the delegates can cote in favour of the proposal, against it or they can abstain. Unfortunately, our resolution on the European defence didn´t pass despite our best efforts.
Even though the official aim of the project is to create a resolution that passes the voting procedure, I think that the most important thing is that I improved my language and argumentation skills, gained confidence in presenting my ideas to the group of people from different schools and countries and that we all enjoyed the short time we spent together. I am glad I could participate in this project and I hope I will be part of the next simulation of the European Parliament which will be in Prague in November 2018.
Lukáš Maroušek
Hlavní stránka
